ROUTLEDGE REVIVALS

Ritual and Belief in

Morocco
Volume I

Edward Westermarck

*
 Routledge Revivals

Ritual and Belief in Morocco

Between the years of 1898 and 1926 , Edward Westermarck spent a

total of seven years in Morocco, visiting towns and tribes in different
parts of the country, meeting local people and learning about their
language and culture; his findings are noted in this two-volume set,
first published in 1926 . Alongside extensive reference material,
including Westermarck’s system of transliteration and a comprehensive
list of the tribes and districts mentioned in the text, the chapters dis­
cuss such areas as the influences on and relationship between religion
and magic in Morocco, the origins of beliefs and practices, curses and
witchcraft. This is the first volume of two dealing with the same sub­
ject, and will fascinate any student or researcher of anthropology with
an interest in the history of ritual, culture and religion in Morocco.
Page Intentionally Left Blank
Ritual and Belief in Morocco
Volume I

Edward Westermarck
First published in 1926
by Macmillan and Co., Limited
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© 1926 Edward Westermarck

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R ITU A L A N D BELIEF
IN MOROCCO

BY

E D W A R D W E ST E R M A R C K

IN TW O VOLUM ES
VOL. I

M A C M IL L A N AND C O ., L I M I T E D

ST. M A R T I N ’S S T R E E T , L O N D O N

1926
 PREFACE
W H EN I was preparing my book The Origin and Development
o f the M oral Ideas I thought that it might be useful for me
to acquire first-hand knowledge of some forms of culture
which differ from our own. A s the University of Helsingfors
had granted me a very handsome travelling scholarship,
which enabled me to stay abroad for years, I contemplated
going to the East to study both civilised and savage races.
I sailed for Morocco in 1898 — and never went farther.
I soon realised what a laborious undertaking it is to acquaint
oneself sufficiently well even with the natives of a single
country : it requires a prolonged stay among them and
knowledge of their language. Even the best interpreter is
apt to omit details which, though apparently trivial, may be
of the greatest importance for a right understanding of the
custom or belief in question, or to let his attention slacken
for a moment, or to give an inaccurate meaning to expressions
which baffle all direct translation. Morocco, offered the
double advantage of being little known and within easy
reach of Europe. I went there time after time ; and in the
course of twenty-one journeys undertaken in the period
between 1898 and 1926 I spent there altogether seven years.
I made it a point to visit towns and tribes in different
parts of the country, and to employ as teachers natives of
other tribes to which I could not go myself. Thus I spent
half a year in Fez ; the same length of time among the
mountains of Andjra, and several weeks among the Jbala
of Jbel H bib and the S a h e l; many months in the Fahs
and the Garbiya ; nearly two months among the U lid
B u ‘aziz in D ukkala, besides which I had daily intercourse
with people of this tribe during my five months’ stay in
VI R I T U A L A N D B E L I E F IN M O R O C C O

M azagan ; a shorter time am ong the Beni A hsen and the

M nasara ; three months am ong the Shloh of the Great
A tlas range ; and m any months in M arraksh and M ogador,
where I had Shloh as my teachers. D uring m y stay in Fez
and Sefru and the excursions I made from the latter place
to the surrounding tribe of the A it Yusi, I had an opportunity
to study the Berbers belonging to the group of the B rib e r ;
and at T angier and Tetuan I came in very frequent contact
with Berbers from the Rif.
In those days when I made nearly all my journeys in
the interior of the country there were no roads, and very
m any districts were inaccessible to travellers. Even for my
sojourn in A ndjra, which was then in a disturbed state, the
Russian legation required of me a written statement to the
effect that I went there entirely at my own risk. Y e t the
treatment I received there, as well as among other m ountain­
eers and peasants not generally noted for friendliness towards
Europeans, was invariably of the kindliest nature. For
this I have to thank my M oorish friend Shereef ‘A bdsslam
1-B aqqali, who has accom panied me on all m y journeys in
M orocco and given me invaluable assistance. I am happy
to say that the President of the Republic of Finland has been
pleased to confer on him knighthood of the order of “ Finlands
V ita Ros ” as a reward for the services he has rendered me.
From a sociological point of view M orocco is much
better known now than it was at the time when I commenced
m y researches. This is chiefly due to numerous important
publications which have appeared in French during the last
quarter of a century, though M r. B udgett M eakin ’s books
also deserve recognition. T he literary activity of L a M ission
scientifique du M aroc, L e Comite d ’Etudes berberes de
Rabat, l ’Ecole superieure de L an gu e arabe et de Dialectes
berberes de Rabat, and L T nstitu t des H autes Etudes maro-
caines, has been imposing ; and valuable works have, in
addition, appeared outside the range of their publications.
M uch attention has been bestowed on the particular subject
with which I am dealing in the present book. Various points
o f it have been ably treated by Messrs. Doutte, Laoust,
H enri Basset, and others ; and if the object of m y book
 PREFACE vii

had been to give a comprehensive account of all that is

known about the popular religion and m agic of M orocco,
their names would certainly have appeared more frequently
in its pages. But its aim is less ambitious, being chiefly
restricted to a presentation and discussion of the results of
my own researches am ong the natives.
A considerable portion of these results have been
previously published in the following essays and articles :—
“ The N ature o f the A rab G inn, illustrated by the present
Beliefs o f the People of M orocco ” , in The Journal o f the
A nthropological Institute o f Great B ritain and Ireland,
vol. x x ix . (1900) ; “ The M agic Origin of Moorish Designs ” ,
ibid . vol. xx x iv. (1904) ; “ Sul culto dei santi nel M arocco ” ,
in A ctes du douzieme Congres International des Orientalistes,
Rom e, vol. iii. pt. i. (Florence, 1902) ; “ M idsum m er
Customs in M orocco ” , in Folk-L ore, vol. xvi. (1905) ;
“ The Popular Ritual of the Great Feast in M orocco ” , ibid.
vol. xxii. (1 9 1 1 ); “ L -a r , or the Transference of Con­
ditional Curses in M orocco ” , in Anthropological Essays
presented to E . B . Tylor (Oxford, 1907) ; Ceremonies and
B eliefs connected w ith A griculture, certain D ates o f the
Solar Year, and the Weather in Morocco (Ofversigt a f
Finska Vetenskaps - Societetens Fdr handling ar, vol. liv.
19 11-12, sec. B, No. 1 ; Helsingfors, 1913) ; The M oorish
Conception o f H oliness (Baraka) (the same series, vol. lviii.,
1915-16, sec. B, No. 1 ; Helsingfors, 1916); The B e lie f in
Spirits in Morocco (Acta Academiae Aboensis, H um aniora,
vol. i. No. 1 ; A b o, 1920). The facts and most of the
theories in these publications have, more or less revised,
been incorporated in the present work, but a large number
o f facts have been added, and the subjects concerned have
also in other respects been treated more fully. M oreover,
m any new subjects, not previously dealt with by me, have
been introduced ; so that at least one h alf of the work m ay
be said to be completely new. Other results of m y researches,
not embodied in this book, are found in a purely linguistical
essay, N om ina im status absolutus und status annexus in
der sildmarokkanischen Berbersprache (Ofversigt a f Finska
Vetenskaps-Societetens F dr handlingar> vol. lvi. 1913-14, sec.
viii R I T U A L A N D B E L I E F IN M O R O C C O

B, No. 3 ; Helsingfors, 1914) ; and in my book M arriage

Ceremonies in Morocco (London, 1914), a French transla­
tion o f which, made by M adam e J. A rin, has been issued by
L ’ Ecole superieure de L an gu e arabe et de Dialectes berberes
de R ab at (Paris, 1921).
I beg to express m y most sincere thanks to M iss Helena
H adley for kindly reading over both the m anuscript and the
proofs. T o her suggestions I am indebted for the im prove­
ment o f m any phrases and expressions, as also to some
references to books with which she has supplied me when I
have been out of reach of an adequate library. I have to
thank m y friend Professor C. G. Seligm an for stim ulating
discussions and for information on certain points.
I gratefully acknow ledge the material support given me
by the Rockefeller Research Fund Committee at the London
School o f Economics and Political Science by m aking
liberal grants towards the expenses for m y journeys to
M orocco in the summers of 1924 and 1925.
M y friend Carl D ahl, C on sul-G en eral o f Sweden at
Tangier, has much contributed to my comfort by his kindness
in placing at m y disposal his delightful country house for
the m any months I spent in M orocco in the course of the
last two years.
E. W .
V il l a B a l b in a , o u t s id e T a n g ie r ,
30th M arch 19 26 .
 SYSTE M OF T R A N SL IT E R A T IO N

I n rendering A rab ic and Berber words and phrases used in

M orocco I endeavour to represent them as they are pro­
nounced by the natives, independently of the written A rabic.
A s the same word is often pronounced differently in different
places, and by different persons, the reader should not accuse
me o f inconsistency if he finds it spelt sometimes in one w ay
and sometimes in another.
M y system o f transliterating the A rab ic consonants is
the following :—

B represents v_, ; d or i when pronounced as the

English d ; d 3 when pronounced as th in this 1 ; d or
)b when pronounced as ^ ; d )b when not pronounced as
i j o 2 > f "_a, in M orocco written s_a ; g ^ or in M orocco
written __a, when these letters are pronounced as g in grand,
a sound for which the Moors also use a with three dots
above it ; ^ 5 h *\ ^ ^ 5 ^ ^ £ when pronounced
as the French j , dj (or, if the sound is doubled, ddj ) represent­
ing the same letter when pronounced as the English j ;
k / J 3; m n ^ ; q (Moorish v—a ); r j ; s

s i ^ (a letter which is also represented by sh in names

of common occurrence) ; t or ^ when pronounced as the
E nglish t ; t ^ when pronounced as th in thing ; t i> ;

1 Among the Jbala the 3 of the written language is often pronounced

in the same way.
2 In Andjra the of the written language is often pronounced in
the same way.
3 L - represents the definite article J).
X R I T U A L A N D B E L I E F IN M O R O C C O

fs ju or v^j,, when these letters are pronounced as ts ; w j

when pronounced as w in w i l l ; y when pronounced as
y in yoke ; z j ; ‘ ^ (hamza).

In some Berber words the following signs are also used :—

g y, to represent a sound which to me appeared almost
as a strongly pronounced consonantal y, but which my
Berber scribe from the A it Sadden, who had a rem arkably
fine ear, considered to be more closely related to a g ; h,
corresponding to the Germ an ch in ich ; n, to be pronounced
as n in bank ; and a small letter above the line n, r, -, w,
or y), to be pronounced with a reduced sound.
T h e vowels are, at least approxim ately, to be pronounced—
A as in Italian ; a between a and o ; a between a and a ;
a as in f a t ; e as in m e t; e between e and i ; i as in this ;
o as in n o t; o as in Germ an ; u as in p u t ; $ between u and
0 ; u between i and the French u.

T he sign ~ over a vowel indicates that it is long ; A that

it is long and accentuated ; w that it is very short ; ' that it
is accentuated.
T h e vowel sounds of the words are subject to great
variations, not only in different localities, but in the same
locality, and even in the mouth of the same individual. T he
length o f the vowel, in particular, is a very difficult matter,
both because it is so changeable, and because it allows of
so m any different degrees ; and it is equally difficult in
m any cases to distinguish between the presence or absence
o f a vowel sound before a consonant or between two con­
sonants. In these respects absolute accuracy may, in fact,
be impossible without the aid of phonetical instrum ents.1
1 have only made use of the signs ’ , A, and ~ in cases when I
have distinctly heard the sound pronounced either long or
very short, but the omission of any such sign does not
eo ipso im ply that it m ight not have been used, nor does
the use o f it im ply that the vowel is always pronounced long
or very short, or, in the latter case, that a vowel sound is

1 Cf. Margais, Textes arabes de Tanger (Paris, 1911), p. xi.

 S Y S T E M OF T R A N S L I T E R A T I O N xi

always present. Some distinguished students of colloquial

A rab ic have (largely, I believe, under the influence o f the
written language) applied the symbol for length more
liberally than my ear has allowed me to do ; vowels which
in the A rab ic w riting are marked as long have a distinct
tendency to be pronounced short in syllables which are not
accentuated. T h e accent is also very changeable both in
A rab ic and Berber words, and ' or A over a vowel only
indicates that I have heard the syllable in which it occurs
accentuated, not that it invariably is so ; and in Berber
words the sign for the accent has very frequently been
om itted.1
1 On the accent in Berber see Stumme, Handbuch des Schilhischen
von Tazerwalt (Leipzig, 1899), p. 14 ; Laoust, Etude sur le dialecte
berbere des N tifa (Paris, 1918), p. 44 sqq.
Page Intentionally Left Blank
LIST OF TR IBES, D ISTR ICTS, TOW NS,
AN D O TH E R LA R G E PLACES M EN ­
TIO N E D IN TH E T E X T

‘A bda, district in the neighbourhood of Saffi inhabited by

“ A rabs
A g a d ir Igir, town on the coast of Sus.
A g lu , large place on the coast of Sus.
A it ‘A ttab, Berbers living north-east of Demnat.
A it B a ‘amran, Shloh in Sus.
A it Brayim , Shloh in Sus.
A it Buttaib, Shloh in Sus.
A it Buwulli, Berbers in the region of Demnat.
A it M diwal, Berbers in the region of Demnat.
A it M jild, B rib e r.
A it M zal, Shloh in Sus.
A it Nder, B rib e r.
A it Sadden, B rib e r.
A it Segr&ssen, B rib e r.
A it Tam eldu, Shloh in the Great A tlas region.
A it T em sim an , Rifians.
A it W arain, B rib e r.
A it W a ry ig e r, Rifians.
A it W auzgit, Shloh in the Great A tlas region
A it Y usi, B rib e r.
A it Zeldn, Shloh in H aha.
A lcazar, town in the interior.
A m anuz, Shloh in Sus.
A m zm iz, small town in the district o f the Igdm iun.
A ndjra ( = A n djra), tribal district am ong the Jbala.
A stuken, Shloh in Sus.
XIV R I T U A L A N D B E L I E F IN M O R O C C O

A t B useggu, Berbers in the neighbourhood of U jda.

A t U b ah ti, Berbers in the neighbourhood of U jda.
A t Y a ‘la, Berbers in the neighbourhood of U jda.
A t Zihri, Berbers in the neighbourhood of U jda.
Azem m ur, town on the A tlantic coast.
A zila, town on the A tlantic coast.
Beni Ahsen, “ A rab ” tribe in the neighbourhood of
Salli.
Bni ‘Aros, Jbala.
Bni H assan, Jbala.
Bni Mess&ra, Jbala.
Bni M ezgelda, Jbala.
Bni M sauw ar, Jbala.
Bni Zarwal, Jbala.
Casablanca, town on the A tlantic coast.
Ceuta, town on the M editerranean coast.
Demnat, town at the foot of the Great Atlas.
D ukkala, district between A zem m ur and Saffi inhabited by
“ A rabs
Fahs, tribal district outside Tangier.
Festsala, Jbala.
Fez, the chief city of M orocco.
Ftuaka. See Infduak.
G aiy£t8a, “ A rab ” tribe east of Fez.
Garb, district inhabited by “ A rabs
Garbiya, tribal district with A rabic-speaking people in
Northern M orocco.
G egaya. See Igigain.
Glawi, tribal district in the Great A tlas inhabited by the
Igliw a.
G zaw a, Jbala.
H abt, ancient name for a district comprising the plains of
the Garb and the H lot and a portion of the mountains
inhabited by Jbala.
H aha, district in the Great A tlas region inhabited by Shloh.
H am ar, district south of D u k k a la inhabited by “ A rab s
H iaina, “ A rab ” tribe near Fez.
Hlot, tribal district in Northern M orocco inhabited by
~ A rabs
 L IS T OF T R I B E S , D I S T R I C T S , TO W N S , E TC. xv

Hmas, la-, Jbala.

Ibqqoyen, Rifians.
Ida G gw arsm ugt, Shloh in Sus.
Ida U gord, Shloh in H aha.
Ida U tanan, Shloh in H aha.
Igdm iun, Shloh in the Great A tlas region.
Igerwan, B rib e r.
Igigairi, Shloh in the Great A tlas region.
Igliw a, Shloh in the Great A tlas.
Ihahan, the Shloh inhabiting Haha.
Imarmusen, B rib e r.
Imejjat, Shloh in Sus.
Im intagen, Shloh in Sus.
Imintatelt, Shloh in Sus.
Imsfi'wan, Shloh in the G reat A tlas region.
Infduak, Berbers in the region of Demnat.
Iniknafen, Shloh in H aha.
Isksawan, Shloh in the Great A tlas.
Iuriken, Shloh in the Great A tlas region.
Jbel H bib, tribal district am ong the Jbala.
Laraiche, town on the A tlantic coast.
M arraksh, the southern capital of M orocco.
M asst, Shloh in Sus.
M azagan, town on the A tlantic coast.
M ehdiya, port on the A tlantic coast.
M elilla, town on the coast of the Rif.
M equinez, town in the interior.
M esfiwa. See Imsfi'wan.
M nasara, “ A rabs ” on the A tlantic coast north of M ehdiya.
M ogador, town on the A tlantic coast.
Ntifa, Berbers in the region of Demnat.
Rabat, town on the A tlantic coast.
Raham na, district between D u k kala and M arraksh in­
habited by “ A rabs ” .
Rif, province situated along the eastern part of the M editer­
ranean coast o f M orocco.
Saffi, town on the A tlantic coast.
Sahel, Jbala.
Salli, town on the A tlantic coast.
xvi R I T U A L A N D B E L I E F IN M O R O C C O

Sefru, small town in the interior south-east o f Fez, in the

district o f the A it Y usi.
Seksaw a. See Isksawan.
Settat, place in the Shawia.
Shawia, district south o f Casablanca inhabited by “ A rabs
Shiadm a, district between ‘A b d a and H ah a inhabited by
“ A rabs * *
S h rig a , “ A rabs ” living north-west of Fez.
Shrarda, “ A rabs ” in the Garb.
Sus, province situated south of the Great A tlas.
Tafilelt, district in the Sahara.
Tangier, town on the northern coast.
Tarudant, the capital of Sus.
Tazerw alt, tribal district in Sus inhabited by Shloh.
Ternsim an, tribal district in the R if inhabited by the A it
T em sim a n .
Tetuan, town close to the M editerranean coast.
Tinduf, caravan centre in the M oorish Sahara.
Tiznit, large place in Sus.
Tsui, Jbala.
U daya, 1-, “ A rab ” tribe in the neighbourhood o f M arraksh.
U jda, small town in the north-eastern corner o f M orocco.
U la d B u ‘aziz, “ A rab ” tribe in D ukkala.
U la d Fraj, “ A rab ” tribe in D ukkala.
U nzutt, Shloh in the Great A tlas.
U rika. See Iuriken.
W azzan, town in the interior.
Z ‘air, “ A rab ” tribe in the neighbourhood of Rabat.
Zarhun, mountain north of M equinez with a town containing
the shrine of M ulai Idris the Elder.
Zemmur, B rib e r.
Zkara. See A t Zihri.
 CONTENTS
IN T R O D U C T IO N
The different groups of Berber-speaking people in M orocco and their dialects,
pp. 1-4.-—-The A rabic-speaking people of Morocco, pp. 4-6.— The large
majority of Arabic-speaking tribes purely or essentially Berber by origin,
p. 5 sq.— Remarks on the customs and dwellings of the Berber- and A ra b ic­
speaking tribes, p. 7.— Representatives of various groups of natives chosen
in the present investigation, p. 7 sq.— The aim of the book, p. 8.— The
collection of the materials, p. 8 sq.— The psychological origin of rites, p.
9 sq.— The historical origin of rites, p. 10 sq.— 1T he culture of the Berbers
has been subject to influences from various quarters, pp. 11-15.— Arabic
influence, p. 12.— Negro influence, p. 12 sq.— Christian influence, p. 13 sq.
■
— Roman, Punic, and ancient Egyptian influence, p. 14.— Similarities
between rites and beliefs in Morocco and those found on the other side of
the Mediterranean, p. 14 sq.— A very large portion or the bulk of the
Berbers belonging to the Mediterranean race, p. 15.— Blondness among
the Berbers, p. 15 sq.— The meaning attached to the terms religion and
magic, pp. 17-34.— Sir James Frazer’s views, pp. 17-21.— Mediaeval con­
ceptions of m agic, pp. 19-21.— Distinction between “ natural ” and “ super­
natural ” phenomena or causes, pp. 21-23.— The relationship between magic
and religion, pp. 24-26.— The meaning of the word religio, pp. 26-28.—
L e sacre according to Durkheim, p. 28.— The theory that religion is social
in its aims and magic anti-social, or at any rate non-social, pp. 28-32.—
The mediaeval distinction between good and bad magic, p. 29 sq.— T he
author’s views as regards the most proper use of the terms religion and
magic summed up, pp. 32-34.

CH APTER I
TH E B A R A K A (H O L IN E SS OR B L E S S E D V IR T U E ) : IT S P R E V A L E N C E

The meaning of the word baraka, p. 35.— Arabic and Berber terms for “ saint ” ,
P- 35 S(1 •— The baraka of the prophet M uhammad, p. 36.— Shereefs, pp.
36-38.— The Sultan’s baraka, p. 38 sq.— M rabtin, p. 40 sq.— M a ldmmrin,
p. 41.— Various ways in which a person may be filled with the baraka of a
saint, p. 41 sq.— The transference of baraka from one person to another
brought about against the will of its possessor, p. 42 sq.— The baraka of
inanimate things appropriated by theft or m agic tricks, p. 43.— M ujahedin,
or hero saints, p. 43 sq.— Sainthood acquired by extraordinary piety and
devotion, p. 44 sq.— The baraka of scribes, p. 45.— O f little children, p.
45 sct •— O f schoolboys, p. 46.— O f old men, ibid.— O f parents with reference
VOL. I x v ii b
xviii R I T U A L A N D B E L I E F IN M O R O C C O

to their children, ibid.— O f guests with reference to their hosts, ibid.—

O f dead strangers, ibid.— O f bride and bridegroom, p. 46 sq.— O f mothers
of twins or triplets, p. 47.— O f ordinary lying-in women, ibid.— O f boys
when they are circumcised, ibid.— O f boys who are born without a fore­
skin or who lose it in a miraculous manner soon after their birth, ibid.—
O f idiots and madmen, pp. 47-49.— M ythical saints, p. 49 sq.— Anonym ous
saints, p. 50.— The sea personified as a saint, ibid.— Mosques and holy
feasts and days personified as saints, ibid.— The origin of the belief in
saints, p. 50 sq.— Female saints, p. 51.— The qdbba, pp. 51-54.— The bit*,
p. 54.— The haus, p. 54 sq.— The mzara, p. 55 sq.— The hauweta, p. 56.— ■
The rauda, ibid.— Saintly cairns, pp. 56-60.— W hitewashed stones or
rocks connected with saints, p. 60.— The maqam (mqarn), p. 60 sq.— The
dareh, p. 61.— The marka1, (markah), p. 61 sq.— The halwa (.halua), p. 62.—
Terms for saints also used to denote places connected with them, p. 62 sq.
— The darbuz (darbuz), p. 63.— The rbe‘a, or money-box, of a saint, ibid.
— Cannon-balls at saintly places, p. 63 sq.— The horm {harm) of a siyid,
p. 64.— The zawia, p. 65 sq.— H o ly places and objects connected with
saints, or personified as saints, which are neither marked in any of the
ways described nor situated in the horm of a siyid, pp. 66-74.— Springs
or other watery places of this kind, p. 66.— Trees, pp. 66 -68 .— Rocks and
stones, pp. 68-72.— Caves, p. 72 — Cannons, p. 73 sq.— The baraka of
rifles and shooting-guns and of the shooters, p. 74.— Places which, although
not only connected with saints but also marked as saintly places, un­
doubtedly derive their holiness from some tree growing there, pp. 74-77.
■
— M iracle-working trees unassociated with any saint, p. 77.— H oly stones,
rocks, and caves among the ancient A rabs and Berbers, p. 77 sq.—
Miraculous stones, rocks, and ruins not even nominally connected with
saints, p. 78 sq.— Even ordinary stones sometimes treated as though they
were sentient beings, p. 79.— H oly mountains, pp. 80-83.— H oly springs
among the ancient Berbers and Arabs, p. 84.— H ealing springs connected
with saint-shrines, pp. 84-87.— M iracle-working springs which are in no
way connected with any saint, p. 87 sq.— Baraka attributed to water
generally, p. 88 sq.— To sea-water, p. 89 sq.— To the sea, although it has
rather the character of a demon, pp. 90-93.— Sea-worship among the
Libyans and pre-Islamic A rabs, p. 91.— Baraka attributed to spittle, pp.
93-96.— To animals connected with a saint, p. 96.— To the horse, pp. 97-
99.— To the saddle, p. 98 sq.— To the sheep, pp. 99-101.— The ram known
to have been a sacred animal in many North African cults, p. 100 sq.—
Baraka attributed to the camel, p. 101 sq.— To milk and butter, p. 102 sq.
-— T o the dung of cattle, p. 103.— To the greyhound, ibid.— To the cat,
p. 103 sq.— To the bee, p. 104.— To honey, ibid.— To various animal
species not previously mentioned, p. 105.— To corn and anything made
of it, p. 106.— Baraka or m agic virtue ascribed to many other vegetable
species or products, pp. 106-113.— To the date-palm, p. 106.— To the
olive and its oil, p. 106 sq.— To the fig tree, p. 107.— To dried fruit, ibid.—
T o grapes, ibid.— To the pomegranate, laurel, and myrtle, p. 108.— -To
the leaves of the poplar, p. 109.— T o the oleander, p. 109 sq.— To various
herbs, pp. 110-112.— To the white broom, p. 112.— To the palmetto, p.
112 sq.— T o henna and walnut root or bark, p. 113.— To antimony, ibid.
■
— T o the ground, p. 114.— T o various mineral products of the earth, p.
115 sq.— T o rain, p. 116 sq.— The rainbow, p. 117 sq.— The lightning,
p. 118.— Thunder, p. 118 sq.— T h e sun, pp. 119-124.— Sun-worship among
the ancient A rabs and Berbers, pp. 121-123.— Eclipses of the sun, p. 123 sq.
— The moon, pp. 124-128.— Moon-worship among the ancient A rabs and
Berbers, p. 126.— Eclipses of the moon, p. 128.— The stars, pp. 129-131.
 CONTENTS xix

— The M ilky W ay, p. 130 sq.— Comets, p. 131.— Fire, p. 131 sq.— Baraka
ascribed to certain days and periods, pp. 132-134.— To the recital of the
creed, p. 134.— T o prayer, p. 134 sq.— T o alms-giving, ibid.— T o the
compulsory fasting in Ramadan and some other fasts, ibid.— To the
pilgrimage to M ecca, pp. 134-137.— To the qabla, or the direction of M ecca,
p. 137 sq.— To the east wind, p. 138.— To the Koran and the names of
God, p. 139.— To certain human names, pp. 139-141.— Baraka or m agic
power ascribed to certain numbers, pp. 141-143.— To certain combinations
of numbers, pp. 144-146.— Not always possible to decide whether the
miracle-working power of which something is possessed may be called
baraka or not, p. 146.— Sometimes likewise impossible to distinguish
between baraka and the profane, p. 146 sq.

C H A P T E R II
THE B A R A K A (H O L IN E SS OR B L E S S E D V IR T U E ) : IT S
M A N IF E S T A T IO N S A N D E F F E C T S

Miracles performed by living saints, pp. 148-153.— The prayers, blessings, and
curses of saints particularly efficacious, pp. 153-155.— Saints, as also
persons possessed of a smaller amount of baraka, acting as doctors, pp.
155"158.— Saints possessed of prophetic gifts, p. 158 sq.— The baraka of
a saint rather increased by his death, p. 159.— Dead saints appearing to
the living, sometimes in animal shapes, p. 159 sq.— Dead saints having more
than one grave, p. 160 sq.— Strange phenomena of light often connected
with dead saints, p. 161 sq.— Miracles attributed to dead saints, p. 162 sq.
— Their miracle-working capacity often to some extent specialised, p.
163 sq.— M any dead saints held in repute as doctors, pp. 164-167.— The
assistance of dead saints secured by invocations, offerings, and sacrifices,
pp. 167-169.— H ow the offerings are disposed of, pp. 169-171.— The
mqaddem of a saint-shrine, pp. 170-172.— Promises of offerings, pp. 172-
174.— Reception days of saints, p. 174.— W eekly serenades at saint-shrines,
ibid.— Religious service at the sanctuaries of saints, p. 174 sq.— A nnual
feasts at saint-shrines, pp. 175-178.— Patron saints, pp. 179-182.— Saints
ready to help those who invoke them even for the most wicked purposes,
p. 181.— Religious orders or fraternities, pp. 181-186.— T h e seh of a
person, p. 186 sq.— The society of saints, p. 188.— The assistance of saints
secured by putting lar on them, p. 188 sq.— The appropriation of, or
interference with, a thing belonging to a saint’s horm punished by him,
pp. 189-192/— Saints punishing robbers who merely pass by their sanctu­
aries, p. 192 sq.— W hy certain saints meddle with questions of social
morality, ibid.— Certain saints dangerous to policemen or any representa­
tives of the Government or the Sultan himself, p. 193 sq.— Christians
and Jews prohibited from entering the sanctuaries of Moorish saints or
even from approaching holy places connected with them, p. 195 sq.—
Certain shrines visited both by Moslems and Jews, ibid.— Women pro­
hibited from visiting certain shrines or from being present at the feasts
of certain saints, p. 196.— The holiness of saints polluted by contact with
infidels and other unclean persons, ibid.— Baraka producing wonderful
effects by physical contact, pp. 196-205.— Benefits expected from sexual
intercourse with a person possessed of baraka, p. 198.— From the baraka
of bride and bridegroom, p. 198 sq.— From contact, direct or indirect, with
saintly places, pp. 199-202.— From the baraka of a dead saint through the
medium of his followers, p. 203.— From offerings partaking of the baraka
XX R I T U A L A N D B E L I E F IN M O R O CC O

of a saint, p. 203 sq.— From the baraka of mosques, p. 204 sq.— From the
baraka of sacred words or passages, pp. 205-219.— W ritten charms, pp.
208-219.— The tsebrld, pp. 208-210.— Other charms belonging to the
class of magic known by the name of tsqaf, p. 210 sq.— Charms written
against illnesses or defects of some kind or other, p. 211 sq.— The mahabba
or mhebba, p. 212 sq.— The ‘a tf and the je lb , p. 213.— Charms written in
order to make schoolboys apt to learn their lessons, p. 213 sq.— To make the
writer invisible in the presence of others, p. 214.— T h e herz M ilrjana
(horz M arjqna) and the herz l-Andarun, pp. 214-216.— The herz l-jausan,
p. 216.— Practices relating to the writing and use of charms, pp. 216-219.
— Baraka giving efficacy to oaths and curses, p. 219.— Though generally
a source of good, the baraka also contains a seed of evil, pp. 219-228.—
Certain food dangerous to eat on account of its baraka, p. 219 sq.— The
seed dangerous, p. 220.— QazqJiza and other excessive baraka, p. 220 sq.
— Saddles more or less dangerous, p. 221 sq.— The sexual power of a person
affected by the robbing of bee-hives, p. 222.— Rules and beliefs relating
to honey, butter, and oil, p. 222 sq.— To milk, wheat, yeast, and salt, p. 223.
— Injurious elements in holy days and holy periods, pp. 223-226.— Friday,
pp. 224-226.— Abstinence from work on a Sunday, p. 226.— Dangerous
elements in the baraka of prayer, p. 226 sq.— In recitations from the Koran
and the writing of charms, p. 227.— In the baraka of the pilgrim , ibid.—
Precautions taken by persons visiting saint-shrines, p. 227 sq.— The
dangerous elements in baraka personified in the shape of jn u n , p. 228.—
The relations between saints and jn u n , ibid.

C H A P T E R III
TH E B A R A K A (H O L IN E SS OR B L E S S E D V IR T U E ) : IT S S E N S IT IV E N E S S

Baraka polluted by contact with infidels, p. 229 sq.— W omen dangerous to

holiness, p. 230.-— Injurious effects resulting from contact of sexual un­
cleanness with baraka, pp. 230-234.— Excremental impurity injurious to
baraka, p. 234.— Baraka polluted by a full stomach, p. 234 sq.-—Fasting,
ibid .— A ll sorts of bodily impurity detrimental to baraka, pp. 235-237.
— Ablutions, p. 235 sq.— Clean clothes, p. 236.— -Paring of the nails, ibid.
— W hite the most suitable colour for holy persons and places, ibid.—
Cleaning of guns, ibid.— Polluting effects of the breath, p. 236 sq.— O f
blood and the shedding of blood, p. 237.— O f wrongdoing, p. 237 sq.—
O f the killing of lice, p. 238.— O f contact with carcasses and in certain
cases meat and grease, p. 239.— O f contact with the ground and its im ­
purities, pp. 239-242 — Rem oving one’s slippers, p. 241 sq.— Persons,
animals, and objects possessed of baraka particularly susceptible to magical
tricks, the attacks of jn u n , and the evil eye, and even affected or influenced
by various acts or omissions which are otherwise harmless, pp. 242-254.
-—Precautions taken with regard to milk, pp. 243-245.— Rules observed
when the first butter of the year is made, pp. 245-247.— Precautions taken
subsequently when butter is made, pp. 247-249.— The baraka which pro­
duces butter very liable to be stolen, p. 249 sq.— The milk of a person’s
sheep or cattle robbed by another person or absorbed by his sheep or cattle,
ibid.— Additional instances of the belief that baraka may be affected by
various external influences, pp. 250-254.— Taboos relating to sieves, p.
251.— Connected with the pilgrimage to M ecca, ibid.— Baraka to be
guarded against contact with steel, p. 251 sq.— Taboos relating to bread,
p. 252.— Practices and beliefs relating to written charms, p. 252 sq.—
 CONTENTS xxi

Silence to be observed in connection with baraka, p. 253 sq.— Baraka

easily affected by other baraka, pp. 254-257.— Rules and beliefs relating
to sheep or wool, p. 254 sq.— Taboos to be observed on a Friday, p. 255 sq.
— Butter made on a Friday subject to special rules, ibid.— Taboos relating
to schoolboys or students, p. 256.— T h e Sultan and the sea, ibid.—-The
shereefian umbrella, p. 256 sq.— Sunshine injurious to holiness, ibid.— ■
Fire injurious to baraka, p. 257 sq.— M any cases in which fire has no power
over a holy person or object, pp. 258-260.— The idea that baraka or in­
dividuals or objects possessed of it are very susceptible to harmful influences,
especially those of a supernatural kind, closely connected with the idea that
baraka itself contains a seed of evil, p. 260.— -These ideas due to that
feeling of uncanniness in which the conception of the supernatural itself
has its root, ibid.— Resemblance between baraka and uncleanness, ibid.—
Though chiefly of an injurious nature, uncleanness may in certain circum­
stances be a cause of good, p. 260 sq.

C H A P T E R IV
T H E J N U N ( / I N N ) : T H E IR N A T U R E A N D D O IN G S

Names given to these spirits, p. 262 sq.— Special names given to certain kinds
of jn u n , p. 263 sq.— T h e jn u n resemble human beings in various respects,
p. 264.— Their native country, properly speaking, under the ground, but
they are fond of visiting the surface of the earth, p. 264 sq.— They show
themselves to mankind in various shapes, pp. 265-269.— In the shapes of
human beings, in which case there may be marriage or sexual intercourse
between a man and a jenniya in the disguise of a woman, pp. 265-267.—
Or in the shapes of animals, pp. 267-269.— A jen n seen by certain
individuals only, and methods of m aking jn u n visible, p. 269.— The jn u n
may be heard though they cannot be seen, or their presence indicated by
something strange, unusual, uncanny, pp. 269-271.— Most frequently by
disturbances of the health, especially sudden ones, p. 271.— Events of an
improper or uncanny character causing their unwelcome appearance, p.
271 sq.— Persons who get angry or frightened very liable to be struck by
jn u n , p. 273.— Certain classes of people particularly exposed to the attacks
of jn u n , pp. 273-275.— Dead persons protected against jnii?i before they
are buried, p. 275.— Cemeteries often considered haunted by jn u n , ibid.—
Circumstances in which persons are attacked by jn u n , ibid.— -Each tribe
of the. jn u n has a special day of the week when they attack human beings,
p. 275 sq.— A jen n attacks a person by entering into him, p. 276.— Certain
classes of people frequently or regularly haunted by jn u n , ibid.— Anim als
attacked or possessed by jn u n , p. 277.— Nothing more haunted by jn u n
than blood, p. 277 sq.— R aw meat, as also meat boiled without salt, con­
sidered haunted and therefore in many cases a source of danger, p. 278 sq.
— Excrements of men and of animals which are not used for food extremely
haunted, p. 280.— Beliefs and practices relating to improper behaviour,
ibid.— To breaking wind, pp. 280-282.— Certain trees haunted by jn u n ,
p. 282.— Corn much exposed to their attacks, ibid.— ‘A farets living among
the snow of the Great Atlas, p. 282 sq.— -The shrine of Sidi Sem harus,
p. 283.— Haunted caves, pp. 283-289.— Buried treasures haunted, p.
289 sq.— Copper-coins and gold haunted, p. 290.— W ater and places
containing water haunted, pp. 290-293.— M any springs or other places
containing water particularly reputed to be haunted, p. 291 sq.—-Big
stones in the sea or on the sea-shore associated with certain jen n saints,
 R I T U A L A N D B E L I E F IN M O R O C C O

p. 293.-— Public baths haunted by sayatin, or evil jn u n , ibid.— Fire and

fire-places haunted, pp. 293-295.— M any jn u n in ashes, p. 295.— D an ger­
ous to pour hot water on the ground or into a water-closet, ibid.— Thresholds
haunted, ibid.— “ The masters of the place ” , p. 295 sq.— Haunted houses
and ruins, p. 296.— Saint-shrines, zawiat8, and mosques haunted, ibid.—
The jn u n most plentiful and active after the ‘ asar, or mid-afternoon,
prayer, ibid.— A variety of actions refrained from or requiring special
precautions after ‘ asar, or when it is dark, pp. 296-300.— The jn u n
particularly numerous on certain days, p. 300 sq.— Confined in prison
during the month of Ramadan, at least till the twenty-seventh night of
it, p. 301.— Said to stay in their subterranean dwellings when an easterly
wind is blowing, ibid.

CH APTER V
TH E J N U N : P R O P H Y L A C T IC M E A S U R E S A G A IN S T T H E M A N D R E M E D IE S
F O R T R O U B L E S C A U S E D B Y T H E M — T H E J N U N IN T H E S E R V IC E OF
M EN A N D S A IN T S

The jn u n terrified by light, p. 302.— A fraid of salt, pp. 302-305.— O f iron and
still more of steel, p. 305 sq.-— O f silver and rings of other metals as well,
p. 306.— Kept off or driven away by the smell of tar, a piece of charcoal,
and soot, p. 307.— B y powder, p. 307 sq.— By alum, harmel, rue, rose­
mary, coriander seed, agal-wood, gum-ammoniac, gum-lemon, and
benzoin, p. 308 sq.— B y the smoke of mastic, p. 309.— B y henna, walnut
root or bark, antimony, and saffron, p. 310.— B y a stick cut from a bitter-
almond tree and an olive stick, ibid.— W hy certain substances or their
fumes are shunned by the jn u n , p. 310 sq.— Baraka utilised as a safeguard
against them, pp. 311-313.— The jn iin kept off by holy words or passages,
p. 311 sq.— B y corn after the alms called la-(sdr have been given out of
it, p. 312 sq.— Inconsistencies in the relations of jn u n to baraka, p. 313.—
T h j n i n kept off by water, p. 313 sq.— B y fire, p. 314.— B y strong sounds,
ibid.— But also by silence, p. 314 sq.— B y means of a sacrifice, pp. 315-
322.— Ceremonies connected with house-building, pp. 315-318.— W ith
the pitching of a new tent or the pitching of tents at a new place, p. 318 sq.
— W ith the digging of a well, pp. 319-321.— W ith the m aking of a new
water-mill, p. 321.— Practices intended to appease the jn u n , pp. 322-324.
— Remedies against troubles caused by them, pp. 324-351.— Tar, benzoin,
and rue, p. 324 sq.— Powder, harmel, salt, alum, gum-ammoniac, charcoal
made of lentisk, bitter almonds, a dagger, an iron-chain, and silver coins,
p. 325.— Blood and earth brought from the grave of a person who has
been murdered mixed with water or with coriander seed as well, p. 325 sq.
— Homicides employed as doctors, p. 326.— W ater used to cure illnesses
and infertility caused by jn u n , p. 327.— The recitation of sacred words
or of the whole Koran a method of expelling troublesome jn u n , ibid.—
W ritten charms used for a similar purpose, pp. 327-329.— Expulsion of
jn u n by means of certain practices generally including sacrifices or offerings,
pp. 329-351.— The so-called dyafa and similar practices, pp. 329-341.—
The jn u n who are troubling people expelled by the active aid of persons
standing in an especially intimate relation to those spirits, pp. 341-350.—-
Curative performances of Gnawa, pp. 344-350.— O f ‘ Esaw a and Jil&la,
p. 349 sq.— Illnesses caused by jn iin cured by visits, with sacrifices or
offerings, made to the sanctuaries of saints ruling over those spirits, p.
350 sq.— B y offerings to jenn saints, p. 351.—-Jnun enlisted by men to
help them to carry out their washes, pp. 351-363.— The ring called hatsem
 CONTENTS xxiii

l-hekma, p. 351 ^ . — Method of summoning jn u n , p. 352 sq.— Methods of

finding out the perpetrator of a theft by the aid of jn u n , pp. 353-356.—
O f getting news about an absent member of the family or finding out
whether a sick person at home will recover, pp. 356-359.— O f finding
buried treasure, p. 359.— Method of opening doors without a key, ibid.—
M ethods of inducing jn u n to help people to practise witchcraft, pp. 360-362.
— Method of increasing one’s own sexual capacity, p. 362.— O f becoming a
successful juggler, ibid.— Hanqatera sgera and hanqatera kbira, ibid.—
W ould-be magicians summoning jn u n to amuse people, p. 362 sq.—
Sacrifices on the threshing-floor made to induce jn u n to help the workmen
and to give baraka to the grain, p. 363.—-Jnun giving people a splendid
opportunity to enrich themselves, ibid.— A ll departed saints have
M uham madan jn u n as their regular servants, ibid.— Saints ruling over
the jn u n in general, p. 363 sq.— Over those of a certain locality, p. 364.
— Saints having a so-called hamma, or place haunted by M uham madan
jn u n ruled over by the saint, p. 364 sq.

CH APTER VI
T H E O R IG IN O F B E L I E F S A N D P R A C T IC E S R E L A T IN G TO T H E J N U N

The Moorish jn u n resemble in all essentials and in many details the jin n of
the East, pp. 366-376.— These resemblances must not be supposed to be
due to Islamic influence alone, p. 376 sq.— The Berber belief in spirits no
doubt deeply rooted in the antiquity of the Berber race, p. 377 sq.— The
jin ji-cult of the East also influenced by that of the West, p. 378 sq.— ■
Sudanese origin of various practices connected with the belief in jn u n ,
pp. 379-382.— The Gnawa not only exorcists but actual /z>z?z-worshippers,
pp. 379-381.— The dyafa or at least the sacrifice often implied in it probably
of Sudanese origin, p. 381 sq.— The beliefs and practices relating to the
jin n in M uham madan countries may be divided into different strata, p.
382 sq.— M any of them preserved from the old A rabic paganism, ibid.— •
Jewish and Christian elements infused into the demonology of Islam,
ibid.— Robertson Sm ith’s hypothesis that the A rab belief in the jin n is a
survival of totemism, p, 383 ^ . — Criticism of it, pp. 384-386.— Criticism
of the supposition that the jin n were originally the spirits of dead people,
p. 386 sq.— The jin n invented to explain strange and mysterious phenomena
suggesting a volitional cause, especially such as inspire men with fear,
pp. 387-390.— The jin n and jn u n closely connected with other mysterious
forces, p. 388 sq.— W ith the impersonal force of evil called l-bas, p. 388.
— W ith the evil eye, p. 388 sq.— W ith baraka, p. 389.—J in n probably means
“ covert ” or “ darkness ” , p. 390.

C H A P T E R V II
I N D IV ID U A L SP IR IT S

Certain jn u n having individual names but nevertheless very shadowy beings

without any distinct personality, p. 391.— 'The case somewhat different with
certain other spirits with individual names who are generally included among
the jn u n but present definite characteristics of their own, pp. 392-413.— ■
‘A isa Qandisa and other female spirits who are evidently equivalents to
her, pp. 392-396.— H am m u Q aiyu, p. 393.— ‘A isa Qandisa presumably
the old goddess ‘Astart, p. 395 sq.— H am m u Qaiyu perhaps the C artha­
XXIV R I T U A L A N D B E L I E F IN M O R O C C O

ginian god Haman, p. 396.— The Gola and other female spirits who seem
to be equivalents to her, pp. 396-400.— The G 5l and L g5 l, p. 397 sq.—
Gwal, golats, and hadmanats, p. 397.— Sbuha or Siibeh, pp. 398-400.— ■
The eastern Gule or Gul, p. 398 sq.— Eastern equivalents to the gw al,
p. 399.— T agznt or T agu zn t, T ayu , and Tam za, whom the natives them­
selves identify with the Gola, m ay nevertheless be old Berber spirits,
modified by A rab beliefs, p. 400.— T h e T a b ‘a (T sab‘a), t-tab‘ a, or ttaba‘t,
pp. 400-404.— U m m s-Subyan, pp. 400-402.— Qarina or Qrina, p. 401 sq.
— The ^ ia l, Lajjial, or L^ial, p. 404.— The Berber belief in a female
demon living in cemeteries, pp. 404-406.— B g ilts I-III, p. 406.— La-H kim a
‘Oqla, ‘Airud, and ‘A qesa, ibid.— Fatm a and Ndahaw a, ibid.— Sitan
(s-Sitan, s-Sitan, s-Sitan, s-Seitan) or Iblis (Iblis, Yeblis), pp. 406-413.
— The Koranic Saitan or Iblis, p. 412 sq.

C H A P T E R V III
TH E E V IL E Y E

The evil eye a very frequent cause of misfortune, p. 414.— Terms for a person
who has an evil eye, ibid.— For one who has been hurt by it, p. 414 sq.—
For the evil eye itself, p. 415.— The belief in the evil eye rooted both in
the expressiveness and the uncanniness of the look, ibid.— The danger
particularly great when the look is accompanied with speech, even though
there is no feeling of ill-will or envy, pp. 416-419.— W hen the look is
accompanied with words of praise, pp. 417-419.— Persons who have
particularly baneful eyes, p. 419 sq.— The evil eye frequently hereditary
in certain families, p. 420.— The eyes of women, ibid.— O f a bride,
ibid.— O f Christians, p. 421.— O f dogs and cats, ibid.— T h e first glance
most dangerous, ibid.— Certain persons, animals, and objects particularly
liable to be hurt by the evil eye, p. 421 sq.— The belief that fear is a cause
of misfortune, p. 422.— The danger of being affected by the evil eye very
great while eating, ibid.— The safest precaution against the evil eye to
avoid exposure altogether, p. 423.— Attem pts made to cure a person who
is reputed to have an evil eye, p. 423 sq.— People unwilling to speak of
their intentions, p. 424.— I f anybody shows a great liking for a thing,
advisable to let him have it, p. 424 sq.— The bab allah , p. 425 sq.— Means
of avoiding the danger of eating in the presence of somebody else, p. 426.
— Precautions taken by persons carrying food, p. 426 sq.— The evil glance
avoided by covering, pp. 426-428.— V eiling the face, p. 427 .sy.— Disguise
a means of protection against the evil eye, p. 428.— U ntidy swaddling-
clothes, p. 428 sq.— The evil glance counteracted by burning or fumigation,
pp. 429-433.— Alum used to counteract it, pp. 429-432.— Harmel, sulphur,
and garlic, p. 430 sq.— Coriander seed and gum-juniper, p. 430.— Rock-
salt, p. 431.— Gum-ammoniac, p. 431 sq.— Burning a few hairs of the
offender’s eyebrows and beard, p. 432.— Burning parings of his nails or
a piece of his clothes, p. 432 sq.— Spilling fire or water on him, p. 433.—
Showing him one’s buttock, p. 433 sq.— Sym bolic blinding of the evil eye
by means of the juice of a pomegranate, grain, or earth, p. 434.— -By
means of thorns, bristles, and needles, p. 434 sq.— B y means of the nail of
a horse-shoe, p. 435.— Cutting off the evil glance in advance, ibid.—
Turning it off, p. 435 sq.— Objects used as amulets to attract to themselves
the first glance, pp. 436-441.— Skulls or other bones of animals, p. 436 sq.
— The black picture of a Christian, p. 436.— Sooty pots or other black
things, pp. 436-438.— The colour black a charm against the evil eye, p.
 CONTENTS XXV

437 si7-— A birth-mark, a ram with four horns, and a cock with two combs
regarded as charms, p. 438.— Stone weights stolen from a market-place used
to counteract the evil eye, ibid.— Silver coins, shells, corals, and pieces of
cornelian, mother of pearl, and amber, p. 439.— Blue, p. 439 sq.— Silver,
pp. 439-441.— Ear-rings, p. 440.— Finger rings, p. 440 sq.—-Gold, copper,
brass, and steel, p. 441.— Laurel wood, ibid.— The oleander, p. 441 sq.—
Rue and tamarisk wood, p. 442.— The blood of a hare and saffron, p. 442 sq.
— The colour yellow, p. 443.— Red, ibid.— H enna, ibid.—-Rain-water which
has fallen on 27th A pril (Old Style), ibid.— Fum igation with burned straw
and cow-dung on Midsummer day, p. 443 sq.— The gall-bladder and the
larynx of the animal sacrificed at the Great Feast, and the barley and salt
remaining in its mouth, p. 444.— A piece of the larynx of the animal
slaughtered when a child is named, ibid.— Earth from a saint-shrine, ibid.— ■
W ritten charms containing passages or portions of the Koran, p. 444 sq.
— Blessings, prayers, incantations, and certain charitable acts, p. 445.— ■
Looking-glasses, ibid.— The gesture of stretching out the fingers of the
right hand, often accompanied with the phrases “ Five in your eye ” or
“ Five on your eye ” and sometimes followed by a similar gesture made
with the left hand, p. 445 sq.— Stretching out of two fingers only or of the
middle finger of the right hand, p. 446.— Phrases containing “ five ” , “ ten ” ,
or the term for Thursday said without any gesture with the hand, p. 446 sq.
— To mention the word for the number five or any number reminiscent
of it improper on certain occasions, p. 447 sq.— The number five avoided
in the giving of presents, p. 448.— Representations of the hand or its
fingers used as charms, p. 448 sq.— Various ways in which the number
five is made use of in amulets against the evil eye, pp. 449-452.— The
cross, p. 451 sq.— Cross-roads, p. 452.— Designs based on the protective
gesture with the hand, “ five in your eye ” , pp. 452-459.— Paintings of
hands, brass hands, four- and eight-petalled rosettes, double-crosses, and
other figures with which the Moors both embellish and protect their
objects, pp. 452-455.— Figures evolved from the double-cross and the
eight-petalled rosette, pp. 455-459.— Double-squares, pp. 455-457.— The
empty octagon, p. 457.— Amulets containing three fives with a common
centre or three squares, ibid.— Suggested explanation of the tendency to
produce the number five doubled both on charms and ornaments— as a
double-five, a double-cross, a double-square, or an eight-petalled rosette,
p. 457 sq.— The twelve- and the sixteen-petalled rosette, p. 458 sq.— The
image of an eye or a pair of eyes or anything resembling an eye used as
a charm against the evil eye, pp. 459-466.— The actual eye of some bird
used for the same purpose, p. 459.— The gem called 1ain l-horr, ibid.— ■
Combinations of hand and eye, p. 459 sq.— Five pairs of eyes, p. 460.—
Eye-designs embroidered on cloaks, p. 460 sq.— Combinations of five and
the eye, p. 461 sq.— Anything round or curved may become a charm on
account of its resemblance to an eye, pp. 462-464.— Thin plates of a circular
shape, silver coins and rings, and charms in the shape of a crescent, p.
462.— Horse-shoes, p. 462 sq.— The curved jaw-bone of some small animal
and the neb of a raven, p. 463.— Claws and tusks, p. 463 sq.— Various
other animal charms, ibid.— The eye represented in the form of a triangle,
p. 465.— -Two intersecting triangles with a small round figure in the centre,
ibid.— Eye and eyebrow designs, pp. 465-467.— Combinations and simpli­
fications of them, p. 466 sq.— The eyebrow design in architecture, p. 467.
— Answer to the possible objection that the author has tried to explain
widespread designs by beliefs, gestures, and charms prevalent in Morocco,
pp. 467-477.— The cross, p. 467 sq.— The pentacle, p. 468.— The rosette,
p. 468 sq.— Representations of a hand with its five fingers extended found
xxvi R I T U A L A N D B E L I E F IN M O R O C C O

among ancient Mediterranean peoples and farther east most probably

charms against the evil eye, pp. 469-471.— The gesture with the five out­
stretched fingers as a charm against the evil eye and five as a m agic number
among Mediterranean peoples, including the ancient Romans, p. 470 sq.
— Representations of an eye or a pair of eyes also frequent among the
ancient Mediterranean peoples, p. 471 sq.— The crescent, pp. 472 sq.—
Suggestion that the Ionic capital, strongly resembling a pair of eyes with
their brows united, was originally a charm against the evil eye, p. 473 sq.
— The triangle and the double triangle forming a six-pointed star used as
charms in eastern countries, p. 474 sq.— General argument in favour of
the author’s theory that the belief in the evil eye has exercised a profound
influence on the decorative art, p. 475.— This belief and the practices
relating to it among the Moors connected with their Islamic culture,
p. 476.— But also presenting very great similarities to superstitions and
practices prevalent in ancient and modern Europe, ibid.— The belief in
the evil eye known to have existed both among Semitic and A ryan peoples
since very early times, p. 476 sq.— Its existence among the ancient Egyptians
and Etruscans, p. 477.— The present belief in the evil eye in North A frica
assumed to have descended not only from A sia but also from Berber
antiquity, ibid.— The belief in the evil eye so widely spread in different
parts of the world that it cannot without strong evidence be regarded as
the outcome of one particular people, p. 477 sq.

C H A P T E R IX
CU RSES AN D O ATH S

Differences between the curse and the evil eye and mouth, p. 479.— The realisa­
tion of a curser’s evil wish brought about either directly through the
mysterious power of the curse itself or by the aid of a supernatural being
invoked in it, but no sharp distinction can be drawn between the purely
m agical curse and the curse which has the form of a prayer, ibid.— Terms
for the categorical curse— the curse in the ordinary sense of the word,
p. 479 sq.— The object of a curse not necessarily a human being, p. 480
— Curses having the actual form of a wish, which is mostly expressed in
an appeal to God, p. 480 sq.— Curses upon ancestors understood to
involve their descendants as well, p. 481.— Curses in which God is invoked
to inflict on the victim some particular evil specified in the curse, p. 481 sq.
— Curses having an optative form without containing an appeal to God,
p. 482 sq.— Curses consisting in giving the other person a bad name, which
is meant to cause him misfortune and in some cases to make him that
which the name indicates, p. 483 sq.— A curse of this type often added to
one which has the form of an invocation, p. 484 sq.— A curse calling forth
another curse in reply, which is generally founded on an association of
ideas by similarity and is often of a more serious character than the curse
which provoked it, p. 485 sq.— A cted curses, p. 486 sq.— Curses embodied
in stones,, p. 487 sq.— Revenge taken by scribes on a wealthy man whom
they have in vain asked for a present, ibid.— The effect of a curse influenced
by the personality of the curser, pp. 488-492.— Parental curses and bless­
ings, ibid.— The curse of a husband as potent as that of a father, p. 490.—
The curses of saints, shereefs, and shereefas, pp. 490-492.— The curses of
women, p. 490 sq.— A woman m ay serve as an asylum, p. 490.— The
curses of unclean persons, p. 491.— The effect of a curse influenced by the
guilt or innocence of the person who is subject to it, p. 491 sq.— A n oath a
 CONTENTS X X V ll

conditional self-imprecation, p. 492.— Terms for it, ibid.— H ow oaths are

taken, ibid.— Oaths sworn by God, p. 492 sq.— B y the M uham madan
religion, p. 493.— On the Koran, ibid.— On writing-boards, p. 493 sq.—
On any book of religious learning, or by the learning of an i diem, p. 494.
— In the presence of a band of ambulating scribes, ibid.— B y schoolboys,
ibid.— B y a rosary, ibid.— B y Ramadan, the month of the M ulud, or a
religious feast, ibid.— B y the eve of a holy day, p. 494 sq.— Oaths taken on
Fridays, or some other holy days, particularly dangerous, p. 495.— Oaths
sworn by the direction of M ecca or by a pilgrim, ibid.— Taken at mosques,
p. 495 sq.— A t saint-shrines, p. 496 sq.— B y invoking a saint from a distance,
p. 497.— Sworn by something belonging to a saint, ibid.— B y a m arket­
place, ibid.— B y the saints of the district, p. 498.— Certain saints by prefer­
ence invoked in oaths or reputed to be severe avengers of perjury, p. 498 sq.
— Certain saints said to strike at once, whereas the punishment of others
comes slowly, p. 499.— Oaths sworn by living saints or other persons possess­
ing baraka, ibid.— B y an old man or his gray beard, or by a little child, ibid.
— B y the breast of one’s mother, p. 499 sq.— B y the milk sucked in infancy
from a woman, p. 500.— B y the blood which two relatives have in common
from their parents, ibid.— B y two persons’ brotherhood or friendship,
ibid.— B y a stranger on the road or by the accidental meeting of a person,
ibid.— B y a bridegroom, ibid.— B y a band of huntsmen, p. 500 sq.— By
a number of people who are sitting or travelling together, p. 501.— B y
one’s own and the other party’s right hand and “ what they ate and
drank ” , ibid.— B y one or more guns, ibid.— B y a sword or a dagger,
p. 501 sq.— B y a hoe, a gim bri, or castanets, p. 502.— B y a tent or the
door of a house, ibid.— B y a horse or a saddle, ibid.— By an ox, a cow, a
camel, or a flock of sheep, ibid.— B y wool, milk, or honey, p. 503.— B y
meat or the slaughtering-place of a market, ibid.— B y the growing crop,
ibid.— A t a threshing-floor, p. 503 sq.— By bread, corn, a dish containing
sSksil, a garden of fig trees and prickly pears, a tray with tea-pot and
glasses, henna, or salt, p. 504.— B y the sun, the night, a burning candle
or lamp, or fire, ibid.— B y water, p. 504 sq.— B y a well, the sea, or the
rain, p. 505.— B y a stone, or at the cairn on a spot where a person has been
found murdered, ibid.— The punishment to which a perjurer exposes him ­
self, ibid.— A n oath may be attended with evil consequences even though
it is not false, p. 505 sq.— The evil energy in an oath looked upon as a
miasma which contaminates anybody who comes near it, pp. 506-508.—
Oaths made in a state of nakedness, p. 506 sq.— False accusers, p. 507 sq.— ■
Perjury and methods of averting the evil consequences of it, p. 508 sq.—
H abitual perjurers, p. 509.— Oath-taking in judicial proceedings, p. 509 sq.
— Com purgation, pp. 510-514.— Oath-taking practised by the natives of
North A frica since very early times, p. 514.— Oaths taken by women,
p. 514 sq.— Promissory oaths or sworn vows, pp. 515-517*— The d liy a
l-hardm, p. 516 sq.

CH APTER X
T H E lA R AND TH E ‘A H D

The term £dr used to denote an act which intrinsically implies the transference
of a conditional curse for the purpose of compelling somebody to grant a
request, p. 518 sq.— Also applied to the relationship in which a person
places himself to another by putting ‘dr on him, p. 519.— The ‘ dr con­
sidered unlawful by Muham madan orthodoxy, ibid.— Generally not thought
lightly of, though many persons take no notice of ldr put on them, ibid.—
xxviii R I T U A L A N D B E L I E F IN M O R O C C O

M any different methods of casting ‘ar on a person, pp. 519-537.— ‘ A r-

m aking by personal contact, p. 520.— B y offering a person food, ibid.— ■
B y entering a person’s house or tent or taking hold of the tent-pole at the
entrance of th eten t, p. 520 sq.— B y touching or sucking a woman’s breast,
p. 522.— B y taking hold of the handmill of the house or tent or turning it
round, pp. 522-524.— B y m aking use of a pipkin, a saddle, a piece of an old
tent-cloth, the cover of a pack-saddle, or an esparto mat, ibid.— By blacken­
ing one’s face with soot, p. 523 sq.— B y smearing one’s face or clothes wTith
cow-dung, p. 524 sq.— B y shaving one’s head and only leaving on it two
locks and a fringe or seven tufts of hair, p. 524.— B y keeping a dagger or
knife between one’s teeth or lips, p. 525 sq.— B y embodying the conditional
curse in stones or in a stake, p. 527.— B y sacrificing an animal on the
threshold of the house or at the entrance of the tent of the person appealed
to, p. 527 sq.— Supernatural energy ascribed to blood, p. 528.— Sacrifices
of fowls as ‘dr, ibid.— The ts‘argiba (fargiba, t^arqeba, t&larqeb, am?arqab),
p. 528 sq.— Simulated, and an instance of a real, sacrifice of a child, p. 529.
— A n unmarried daughter left as ‘dr in a person’s house, ibid.— M arriage­
able girls or young married women sent as ‘dr to a tribe appealed to for
help, p. 529 sq.— The lar resorted to for a variety of purposes, pp. 530-537.
■
— In connection with a blood-feud and the m onetary compensation for
it, pp. 530-533.— A s a method of putting a stop to a war between two
tribes, p. 533.— O f bringing about a betrothal, ibid.— O f compelling a man
to marry a woman who has run away from her husband and to compensate
the abandoned husband, pp. 533-535.— The ‘dr a great boon to strangers,
PP- 535 *537 -— The duty of hospitality and its connection with the belief
in the ‘dr or similar ideas, pp. 537-549.— The fear of guests, p. 539 sq.—
Reception ceremonies, p. 540.— A guest also a potential benefactor, p.
541 sq.— Hospitality a duty enjoined by religion, p. 542 sq.— The religious
duty of helping suppliants and guests in ancient A rabia no doubt closely
connected with m agical beliefs similar to those prevalent in M orocco,
PP- 543 "545 -— Additional support for this conclusion derived from other
ancient countries, pp. 545-547.— The duty of hospitality limited to three
days, p. 547.— The divine reward of generosity towards guests traced to
their blessings, p. 548.— Reception ceremonies in the East, p. 548 sq.—
A lthough the Moorish ‘dr is rooted in ideas which prevailed in A rab
antiquity and are found among the modern A rabs of the East, it has
probably in a large measure an A frican foundation, p. 549 sq.— Certain
cases of £dr bearing a striking resemblance to practices found among
A frican pagan peoples, p. 550 sq.— ‘ A r thrown upon jn u n , p. 551.— U pon
dead saints, pp. 551-561.— B y an exclamation, p. 551.— B y putting a stone
or stones or something else on a cairn connected with a saint, p. 552.—
B y m aking a small pile of stones, p. 552 sq.— B y tying rags, clothing, or
hair to some object belonging to a siyid , p 553 sq.— B y tying one’s turban,
p. 554 sq.— B y knotting a cord in one’s clothes, or the leaves of a palmetto
or the stalks of white broom growing in the vicinity of a siyid, p. 555.—
Some of these practices also expected to make the petitioner profit by the
baraka of the object with which he comes in contact, ibid.— Instances in
which the idea of disease-transference is conspicuously present in his mind,
p. 555 sq.— A fusion of different ideas also found in other methods of
putting ‘dr on saints, pp. 556-558.— The ‘dr cast on a dead saint frequently
consists of an animal sacrifice, p. 558.— Clothes sometimes left at a shrine
as ‘dr on the saint, p. 559.— The sanctuaries of saints places of refuge, pp.
559-561.— Mosques also asylums for refugees, p. 561.— Practices at least
externally similar to those by which in M orocco ‘dr is cast upon saints
found in the East, pp. 561-563.— The custom of tying rags to trees said
 CONTENTS xxix

to have existed among the ancient Libyans, p. 563.— The right of sanctuary
in other M uham madan countries and among ancient Semites, ibid.'— The
origin of the right of sanctuary, p. 563 sq.— The ‘ ahd or lahad, pp. 564-569.
— Definition of the term, p. 564.— Methods of m aking a promise very
binding, p. 564 sq.— Covenanting by an exchange of turbans or cloaks,
p. 565 sq.— B y the joining of hands, p. 566 sq.— B y eating together, p. 567.
— A common meal may in any circumstances be a sort of ‘ahd-, laying
restraints on those who parta.ke of it, p. 567 sq.— Rites of covenanting
similar in principle to those practised in M orocco seem to have occurred
in North A frica in very ancient times, p. 568.— A common meal an early
method of sealing a compact among Semites, p. 568 sq.— Sacrifice establish­
ing a covenant between God and man among the ancient Hebrews and
Arabs, p. 569. —Criticism of Robertson Sm ith’s views about methods of
covenanting with the deity, ibid.

C H A P T E R XI
W I T C H C R A F T — H O M O EO PATH IC I N F L U E N C E S — T H E T R A N S F E R E N C E
O F E V IL

Term s for witchcraft and persons practising it, p. 570.— W itchcraft practised
by the aid of jn iin , whose assistance is secured by writing their names,
ibid.— W itchcraft by writing extensively indulged in by scribes, p. 570 sq.
— Other kinds of witchcraft particularly practised by women, p. 571.— ■
Sorcerous practices of a preventive character, belonging to the class of
m agic called tsqaf, pp. 571-576.— Practices intended to make men physically
incapable of having sexual intercourse, pp. 571-573.— Remedies for such
sexual incapacity, p. 573.— Mothers practising tsqaf to preserve the virtue
of their unmarried daughters, p. 574.— The t*qaf practised for the purpose
of preventing sexual intercourse often intended to do so by producing
lack of inclination rather than physical incapacity, p. 574 sq.— Barrenness
of women caused by tsqaf, p. 575 sq.— T sqaf practised to prevent the delivery
of a woman who is with child, p. 576.— -To bewitch animals, ibid.— W itch­
craft practised for the most diverse purposes, p. 577 sq.— Also without
reference to any particular individual, p. 578 sq.— The precise meaning of
the word shor, p. 579.— M eaning of the words sahhar and sahhara, ibid.
— O f the word hkim , p. 579 sq.— Homoeopathic influences of many kinds,
pp. 580-604.— Practices by which men strengthen their sexual power,
p. 581.— Homoeopathic rites at weddings intended to ensure or facilitate
the consummation of the marriage, pp. 581-583.— Homoeopathic rites
practised at weddings and on other occasions with a view to m aking the
wife fruitful and, particularly, a mother of male offspring, pp. 583-585.—
The sex of an anim al’s young influenced by the sex of a person, p. 586.— ■
The belief in a homoeopathic influence upon the sex of a child traceable in
some cases of divination, ibid.— Pregnancy suggested by a sty, ibid.— A n
unborn child subject to other homoeopathic influences besides such as
affect its sex, p. 586 sq.— Homoeopathic magic practised at weddings for
a variety of purposes, pp. 587-589.— T o make the marriage union durable,
p. 587 sq.— To give the husband power over his wife and the wife power
over her husband, p. 588.— To make the bridegroom a loving husband,
p. 588 sq.— To make the couple prosperous, p. 589.— Homoeopathic
practices intended to increase the supply of food, pp. 589-593.— Various
ways of turning the principle that “ like produces like ” into economic
advantage, p. 593.— Effects ascribed to sweeping and to the broom, pp.
 R I T U A L A N D B E L I E F IN M O R O C C O

593-596.— Beliefs and practices relating to slippers, p. 596 sq.— Homoeopa­

thic influence of empty vessels or saddles or other empty things, p. 597 sq.
— Homoeopathic practices relating to domestic animals, p. 598 sq.— Prison
m agic, p. 599 sq.— Schoolboy customs, p. 600 sq.— Children’s games, p.
601 sq.— Death supposed to be caused or foreboded by something suggestive
of it, p. 602 sq. — Events indicating a long life, p. 603.— Dangerous to talk
about illness or other disagreeable things, p. 603 sq.— The spoken word
bringing about its own realisation, p. 604.— In other cases supposed to
produce a m agical effect by communicating an evil from which the speaker
suffers to the person spoken to, p. 604 sq .— A disease or some other evil
not only communicated by infection, but actually transferred from the
person suffering from it to another person or an animal or an inanimate
thing, so that the sufferer himself gets rid of it, pp. 605-607.— The transfer­
ence of fatigue, p. 606 sq.— The death to which a person is exposed may,
as it were, be transferred to an animal by killing it, p. 607.— The slaughter
of an animal may save the lives of other animals, ibid.— But the has of a
person may also pass into another person or an animal or a thing without
any act of transference, as in the case of the death of an infant or an animal
or in the case of the accidental breaking of an object, p. 607 sq.
 LIST O F 'I LL U S TR A T IO N S
FIG. PAGE
I. Sidi ‘Abdsslam 1-Baqqali in Andjra . . . . . 2
2. Scribe from Fez (my secretary) . . . . . . 3
3. College student in Fez . . . . . . . 5
4. M y travelling companions . . . . . . 7
5. Berber from the R if . . . . . . . 9
6. Berbers from the A t U bah ti . . . . . . 11
7. A m ong the A it Yusi . . . . . . . 13
8. A m ong the A it Yusi . . . . . . . 15
9. In D ukkala . . . . . . . . 17
10. Boy in the Garbiya . . . . . . 18
11. Country schoolboys . . . . . . 19
12. V illage in the Fahs (Northern Morocco) . . . . 21
13. M ountain village in the neighbourhood of Tetuan . . . 23
14. The cottage at p a r 1-Hjar in Andjra in which I was staying . . 25
15. A rab village seen at a distance . . . . . . 27
16. A rab village . . . . . . . . 29
17. Mosque in an A rab village . . . . . . 30
18. A m ong the A it Y u si . . . . . . . 3i
19. Huts in the neighbourhood of M arraksh . . . . 32
20. M arket outside Am zm iz . . . . . . . 33
21. Qobba outside A lcazar . . . . . . . 52
22. The qobba of Sidi ‘Abdullah t-T 8audi outside B ib g-Gisa at Fez . S3
23. The qobba and mosque of Sidi M hammed ben la-Hsen outside Bab
g-Gisa at Fez . . . . . . . . 53
24. The blts of Sidi Bujida outside Fez . . . . . 54
25. The haus of Sidi Berdella outside Bab g-Gisa at Fez . . . 55
26. Haus in the Fahs . . . . . . . .
55
27. Haus in the Hlot . . . . . . . . 56
28. Cairn outside Fez . . . . . . . . 57
29. Cairns on the road to Fez . . . . . . 57
30. Cairn on the road between T angier and Tetuan . . . 58
xxxi
xxxii R I T U A L A N D B E L I E F IN M O R O C C O

FIG. TAGE

31. Saintly cairn with a flag-staff . . . . . • 58

32. W hitewashed saintly cairn outside Tangier . . • 59
33. W hitewashed rock at ‘A in ben ‘A m ar . . . *. 61
34. H oly rapid in A sif n Sidi N asar u M hasar . . . 67
35. Talgomt or n-n&ga near Sidi Y a h y a . . . • 70
36. S iy id with a tree, in the H lot . . . . . 76
37. Lalla T suglhair, on the top of a hill outside Dem nat . . 81
38. Sidi H b lb’s mountain seen from the G arbiya . . • 83
39. Lalla Takerkust . . . . . . . 86
40. L -M aq ta ‘ outside Fez . . . . . . 284
41. Cairn at 1-M aqta‘ . . . . . . . 284
42. Imi n Taqqandut . . . . . . . 286
43-70. Charms and designs from M orocco . . . 449-453
71-73. Figures on Punic monuments . . . • 453
74-121. Charms and designs from Morocco . . 454-467
122-127. Figures on Punic monuments . . . 468-474
128. Sm all piles of stones in the Great A tlas . . . ■ 552
129. Lotus tree outside the qobba of Sidi ‘Ali B ugaleb in Fez • 553

P L A T E

N(X (Between pages 452 and 453)

1. Em broidery.
2 and 3. Brass hands from which lamps are suspended.
4. D agger from the Rif.
5-7. Bags.
8. Saddle- or horse-cloth from Glawi.
9. Berber rug.
10. D agger from the Great Atlas.
 IN TR O D U C TIO N

T he M uham m adan natives of Morocco are chiefly of

Berber race, although the Berber language, which before the
arrival of the A rabs was spread over the whole country, has
in a large part of it been superseded by the tongue of the
invaders. The Berber-speaking tribes, to whom alone the
term “ Berber ” is popularly applied, m ay be divided into
several groups. There are the Berbers of the Rif, called by
themselves Irifiyen and in A rabic Ruafa, whose country
extends along the M editerranean coast between a line about
forty miles south-east of Tetuan and the neighbourhood of
the A lgerian frontier ; the B rib er, who inhabit the mountain
regions o f Central M orocco and the eastern portion of the
Great A tlas range ; the Shloh, or Iselhin as they call them ­
selves, who inhabit the western part of the Great A tlas and
the province of Sus, situated to the south of it— a territory
the eastern frontier of which may be roughly indicated by a
line drawn from the neighbourhood of Dem nat in a south­
easterly direction, and the northern frontier by a slightly
curved line uniting Dem nat with M ogador on the A tlantic
coast and following the foot of the mountains or, in some
places, intercepting a strip of the plain ; and the D rawa,
who inhabit the valley of the W ad D ra in the extreme south
of Morocco. A fifth group consists of various tribes living
in the neighbourhood of U jda, in the north-eastern corner
o f the country. A ll the Berber-speaking people are called
by a Berber name Im azlgen.
This division into groups is based not only on geo­
graphical but also on linguistic considerations. The dialects
o f the tribes belonging to the same group have greater
2 R I T U A L A N D B E L I E F IN M O R O C C O

resemblance than those spoken within different groups, which

m ay differ greatly both in their words and sounds. A Rifian
told me that when he heard the talk of B rib e r or Shloh he
could only recognise a few of the words, while a Berber from

F ig . i . — Sidi ‘Abdsslam 1-Baqqali in Andjra.

the south, who had travelled much, said that he could under­
stand the B rib e r with difficulty, but the Rifians not at all.
There is, however, no sharp line of demarcation between the
dialects of the southern and central Berbers, as there is no
very definite geographical border between those people ;
whereas the dialectic differences inside the latter group m ay
 IN TRO D U CTIO N 3

be quite considerable. The language even of neighbouring

tribes, like the A it Sadden and the A it W arain, may differ so
much in its vocabulary and phonetics that a member of the
one tribe sometimes finds it difficult to understand a member
of the other, and, as I have tested myself, is unable to imitate
certain sounds of his dialect. The dialects of the R i f 1 also

F ig . 2.— Scribe from Fez (my secretary).

present more dissimilarities than the Shelha, the language of

the Shloh, which is com paratively homogeneous, phonetically
as well as otherwise. Y et in every Berber tribe there are
linguistic peculiarities, which m ay be quite notable even
inside the same tribe. The explanation of the remarkable
differentiation of the Berber language is not far to seek. It
1 See Biarnay, £tude sur les dialectes berberes du R i f {Paris, 1917).
4 R I T U A L A N D B E L I E F IN M O R O C C O

lies partly in the complete absence o f a written standard,

and partly in the vastness of the territory inhabited by the
Berbers and the lack of contact between the different groups
or even sections o f the same group.1
T he A rabic-speaking people of M orocco consist o f the
‘A rab (“ A rabs ” ), who inhabit most of the plains ; the Jbala
(“ mountaineers ” ) who inhabit the mountain region extend­
ing from the Straits of G ibraltar to the neighbourhood of
Fez and to the west and south of the R i f ; and the A ra b ic ­
speaking inhabitants o f the towns, who are often referred
to as “ M oors ” , although this name m ay be more con­
veniently applied to the M uham m adan population of
M orocco in general. T he dialectic differences o f the A rab ic
o f M orocco are infinitely smaller than those of the Berber
idioms. The pronunciation of and ^ as ts (ts) in Northern
M orocco and o f (M oorish ^ J) as g am ong the ‘A ra b is
particularly conspicuous.
A lth pugh A rab ic is spoken over a much smaller area of
the country than Berber, it is nevertheless the dom inant
language, being that of the Governm ent and adm inistration,
the religious creed, and the higher culture. Berber is
despised as a barbarous jargon. There is an A rab ic saying,
L a -s e l ma h'Hwa idam , l-besna ma hiya talam, s-selha ma
My a klam , “ H oney is not grease, durra is not food, Shelha is
not a language T h e Berbers themselves look upon their
lan guage as much inferior to A rabic, and those who have
learned A rab ic— m any of them are bilingual— are often
ashamed o f speaking their mother-tongue. M ore than once
I noticed the glad surprise shown by m y Berber teachers at
the interest I took in it, and their answers were in the
beginning not infrequently accom panied with a friendly
smile.2 But although the Berbers respect the A rab ic
language, they do riot like the ‘A rab . T he Shloh accuse
1 For the classification and mutual relations of the Berber dialects
of Morocco cf. Stumme, Handbuch des Schilhischen von Tazerwalt
(Leipzig, 1899), p. 3 sq. ; Laoust, ‘ Coup d’ceil sur les £tudes dialectales
berberes au Maroc in Bulletin de VInstitut des Hautes Etudes
Marocaines, i. (Paris, 1920), p. 117 sqq. ; H. Basset, Essai sur la
litterature des Berberes (Alger, 1920), p. 51 sqq.
2 Cf. Basset, op. cit. p. 34 sq.
 IN T R O D U C T IO N

them of being brutal and filthy in their habits, and call them
izakarn (Igliwa) or izakaren (T azerw alt1), m eaning “ ropes ” ;
the A it Sadden call them ihssoden, or “ lo g s ” , and other
B rib e r give them a similar epithet. Nor are the Jbala fond
of the ‘A rab. In A ndjra I was told that they have no
religion, neglect the fast of Ram adan, and have illicit

F ig . 3 .— C o lle g e s tu d e n t in F e z .

intercourse with their sisters ; and at the weddings there the

married men, who in every conceivable w ay molest the
bridegroom and his bachelor friends, are characteristically
enough called “ the ‘A rab I was assured that the Rifians
are a much better race. .
It should be noticed, however, that the term ‘A rab is only
an indication of language, not of race. There can be no
doubt that the large majority of A rabic-speaking tribes in
1 Stumme, op. cit. p. 190.
6 R I T U A L A N D B E L I E F IN M O R O C C O

M orocco are purely or essentially Berber by origin. T he

number o f A rab im m igrants from the E ast can only have
been com paratively small. Those who came there as
conquerors at the end of the seventh and at the beginning of
the eighth century were only a handful of people. T h e chief
invasion took place in the eleventh century, when several
Bedouin .tribes settled down in Barbary. Ibn ar-R aqiq
estimated the number of these invaders at more than a
million persons of both sexes and the number of combatants
at fifty thousand ; ] but it seems that his estimates are
considerably exaggerated.2 In any case the invaders were
spread over a large area, from Tripoli to the A tlantic Ocean,
and we m ay presume that only a m inority of them reached
M orocco.3 A n anthropological investigation of over eight
thousand natives of Eastern B arbary has led M essrs.
Bertholon and Chantre to the conclusion that the number of
A rab imm igrants has always been insufficient to impress
their type on the mass of the people, and that “ the so-called
A rab tribes of North A frica present the same somatic
characteristics as other tribes which are incontestably
Berbers ” .4 It seems that am ong the tribes of M orocco
north of the G reat A tlas range a fair quantity of A rab blood
m ay be found chiefly in those living between A lca zar and
Laraiche and between the rivers Bu R a g ra g and U m m
r-R b e‘ and a little farther south, whereas the other A ra b ic ­
speaking tribes mostly consist of A rabised Berbers who have
changed their lan gu age.5 I desire to emphasise that in
speaking of “ A rabs ” in M orocco I simply m ake use of a
term by w hich the people themselves denote the A ra b ic­
speaking inhabitants of the plains, while by “ Berbers ” I
mean Berber-speaking people.

1 Ibn ar-Raqiq, quoted by Marmol Caravajal, H A frique, i. (Paris,

1:677), p. 275 ; and by Leo Africanus, The History and Description o f
A frica, trans. by J. Pory (London, 1896), p. 139.
2 Cx. Margais, Les Arabes en Berberie du X I e au X I V e siecle
(Constantine & Paris, 1913), pp. 113, 733.
3 Ibid. p. 515 sq.
4 Bertholon and Chantre, Recherches antkropologiques dans la
Berberie orientale (Lyon, 1913), pp. 347, 358.
5 See Margais, op. cit. map.
 IN TRO D U CTIO N 7

T h e various groups of tribes, Berber and A rabic-speaking,

have also more or less their peculiar customs and mode of
life, but to what extent this is the case cannot, of course, be
discussed in the present connection. A t the same time there
m ay also be a greater resemblance in customs between A rabs
and Berbers living in the same neighbourhood than between
tribes belonging to the same group. A s the dwellings of the
people will be frequently referred to in the descriptions of
their rites or customs, it m ay be well to know that the Jbala,

F i g . 4.— M y travelling companions : a Rifian (left), Sidi ‘Abdsslam

(mounted), and two Jbala from Andjra.

the Rifians, and the Shloh live in houses, that most of the
A rabs and the Berber tribes in the neighbourhood of U jda
live in tents, and that among the B rib e r some tribes live in
houses and others in tents or both in houses and tents. There
were nomadic Berbers living in tents before the arrival of
the Bedouins.1
I have during m y journeys to M orocco studied the
customs and beliefs of these various groups of people, with the
exception of the D raw a, as regards whom I have been unable
to procure sufficiently trustworthy information. In this book
1 Ibn Haldun, Histoire des Berberes et des dynasties musulmanes
de VAfrique septentrionale, trans. by Baron de Slane, i. (Alger, 1852),
pp. 167, 177.
8 R I T U A L A N D B E L I E F IN M O R O C C O

the Rifians are chiefly represented by the A it W a ry ig e r and

A it Tems&man ; the Berbers in the neighbourhood of U jda
by the A t U b ah ti ; the B rib e r by the A it Sadden, A it
Y usi, A it W arain, A it Nder, and A it M jild ; the Shloh by
the Igliw a in the Great A tlas south-east of M arraksh, the
inhabitants of D em nat and A m zm iz, the Ihahan on the
northerly slopes of the most westerly portion of the Great
A tlas, and the A m anuz and the people of A g lu (close to
the A tlan tic coast) in Sus ; the A rabs by the natives of
the G arbiya to the south o f Tangier, the M nasara and Beni
A hsen on the coast between Laraiche and Rabat, the U lad
B u ‘aziz and U lad Fraj in D ukkala to the south of A zem m ur,
and the people o f the H iaina in the neighbourhood of Fez ;
the Jbala by the people o f A ndjra and Jbel H bib and the
Bni ‘A ros in the northern part, and the Tsui in the southern
part of their district ; and the A rabic-speaking tow nsfolk by
the inhabitants of Fez and Tangier. B ut reference is also
made to m any other tribes and places.
In the present w ork I am dealing with the popular
religion and m agic of the M oors, not, except casually, with
the general tenets and rites o f Islam or those of the M alik!
school of M uham m adans, to which the Moors belong. M y
chief object is to give a system atic account of what I have
m yself seen or heard from the lips of natives. I have to
some extent made use of, or referred in footnotes to, facts
stated by other writers on M orocco, but in such cases I have
invariably mentioned the source of information. A s for the
collection of m y materials, I have made it a stringent rule
not to accept statements of others than natives of the country,
because I have frequently found those of European residents
lacking in accuracy. I have further made it a rule not to
use information given me about a tribe b y members of other
tribes, without specially indicating its more or less un-
authoritative character. I have also been in the habit of
repeating to m y informants their statements in full so as to
avoid all m isunderstanding ; and I have occasionally tested
their trustworthiness by deliberately misrepresenting their
statements, but in such cases they have never failed to correct
me. T h e accuracy of the natives even in the smallest details
 IN T R O D U C T I O N 9

is rem arkable ; and the patience of many of my teachers has

been beyond praise.
In my study of the various rites I have not been content

— —
mmbbbbbm
M ggPr
WSSsBmSM
■■h B h

mwmm
m/MIB

F ig . 5.— Berber from the Rif.

with ascertaining the bare external facts, but have, so far

as possible, tried to discover the ideas underlying them
The reader will find that the explanations given by the
natives themselves are not always alike. The reason for this
 10 R I T U A L A N D B E L I E F IN M O R O C C O

is probably that the real origin of the rite has been partly
or wholly forgotten, and a new interpretation substituted for
the idea from which it sprung. It is well known that rites
are very apt to survive the ideas in which they have originated.
This, however, should not make the field-ethnologist less
eager to find out the present m eaning attached to the facts
he records ; for whether or no it be the original m eaning, it
gives us in any case some insight into the ideas of existing
people, and these are by themselves im portant subjects of
inquiry. But I maintain that the aim of the field-ethnologist
should not be only to observe and describe. W here the
m eaning of a custom is obscure or lost, his general know ledge
of the native mind and its ways of thinking and feeling ought
to enable him to make valuable conjectures. I thoroughly
disagree with the principle which I once heard expressed
by the reader of a paper on some savage tribes at a m eeting
o f the Royal Anthropological Institute, that the field-
ethnologist should only aim at collecting facts and leave it
to the ethnologists at home to explain them. But he must,
of course, take the utmost care to avoid m ixing up his own
interpretations of facts with the observed facts themselves.
This is a rule which I have strictly followed. W hile all
explanations given without any qualification are statements
expressly made by my native informants, or are directly
implied in their statements, those suggested by m yself are
invariably, in some w ay or other, m arked as m y own inter­
pretations.
The difficulties in finding the ultimate psychological
origins of rites are frequently increased by the obscurity of
their historical origins. A custom m ay spring up spon­
taneously am ong a certain people or tribe, or it m ay be
imported from some other people or comm unity ; and to be
complete, the study of it must be concerned not only with its
intrinsic m eaning but also with the question whether it has
a native origin or not, and, in the latter case, from where it
has been introduced. This study of its history is often beset
with difficulties, which indeed m ay be unsurmountable. It
requires a profound knowledge not only of the customs of the
ethnic group which is the subject of the investigation but of
 IN T R O D U C T IO N

those of other people with whom it has come in contact ;

and even with such a knowledge it m ay in many cases be
impossible to decide with certainty whether we have to do
with a loan or not. Considering how often absolutely
identical customs are found am ong races living in very
different parts of the world, in circumstances which seem to
exclude all possibility of a common origin, we have to take
account of the fact that such customs m ay also have grown
up among peoples who are of the same stock or have come

F i g . 6 .— Berbers from the A t Ubafrti.

into contact with one another. Indeed, the more similar

two peoples are, the greater is the probability that new
details in their culture m ay also resemble each other ; from
seeds of the same kind very similar plants spring up. I
have been very conscious of these difficulties in my attempt
to trace the historical origin of rites and beliefs recorded in
the present work. In many cases it has been quite easy to
accomplish, but in others it has only resulted in more or
less plausible conjectures ; and frequently I have been
obliged to abstain from any such attempt, because I have
found it a hopeless task.
The culture o f the Berbers has been subject to influences
12 R I T U A L A N D B E L I E F IN M O R O C C O

from various quarters. T h e latest, and from the point of

view o f religion greatest, w ave of this kind .came with the
A rabic invasions, which brought to them Islam. A n d hand
in hand with the rites and doctrines of their religion the
A rabs introduced other customs and beliefs, even such as
were actually forbidden by it ; a rite of this kind is pre­
sum ably the irreligious lamentations and self-lacerations
of the female mourners which are practised by some of the
Berbers, as well as by the A rab s.1 T h e Bedouins who settled
down on the plains of M orocco in the eleventh century were
themselves very im perfectly Islamised, and their im piety and
cynicism sometimes scandalised even the native inhabitants
o f the country ; 2 yet they m ay have influenced the latter’s
customs and beliefs. T he resemblances in these respects
between the Berbers, as well as A rabs of M orocco, and the
A rabs of the East, m any of which will be pointed out on
subsequent pages, are so manifold, even in little details, that
we m ay assume a considerable A rab influence falling outside
the pale of Islam. But on the other hand it is certain that
m any of these resemblances are not due to such influence ;
various forms of nature-worship m ay serve as an instance
of this. O w ing to our very deficient knowledge of the
ancient Berbers, however, it is frequently impossible to say
what is A rab by origin and what is Berber, and it m ay be
futile even to m ake a conjecture on this pdint. W e have,
moreover, to take note of the fact that some similarities
between the natives of M orocco and A rabic-speaking people
of the East m ay have been caused by a common participation
in an ancient M editerranean culture. Instances of this will,
for exam ple, be found in the chapters on the evil eye, the
agricultural rites, and the funeral and m ourning ceremonies.
There has also been a N egro influence, w hich am ong
the Berbers of the South no doubt commenced at a very early
period when the southern border of their territory was more
northerly than it is now,3 and which has been m aintained in
later times through the influx of N egro slaves. This influence
1 Infra, ii. 494 sq. 2 Margais, op. cit. p. 713 sq.
3 R. Basset, Mission au Senegal, quoted by van Gennep, Uetat actuel
du probleme totemique (Paris, 1920), p. 257 sq.
 IN TRO D U CTIO N 13

is very conspicuous in the rites of the G n aw a,1 and will

probably prove to have had a considerably larger scope than
is known at present.2
Several writers have perceived in certain Berber customs
traces o f Christian beliefs.3 Christianity entered North
A frica at an early date, and in the time of the A rab invasions
there were a number of Christianised Berber tribes.4 In
M orocco Christian Berbers are said to have existed more than
a century after the appearance of Islam, when M ulai Idris

F ig . 7.— A m ong the A it Yusi.

subdued the last Berbers in that country who still remained

“ Christians, Jews, or idolaters ” .5 It does not seem, how­
ever, that Christianity ever gained any considerable hold of
the Berbers. In more recent times there were settlements

1 Infra, i. 379 sqq. See also infra, i. 381 sq.

2 On this subject cf. van Gennep, op. cit. p. 257 sqq.
3 See Budgett Meakin, The Moorish Empire (London, 1899), p. 309
sq. ; Idem, The Moors (London, 1902), p. 395.
4 Joannes Abbas, ‘ Chronicon'5, in Migne, Patrologiae cursus, lxxii.
(Parisiis, 1849), col. 866 ; Abu "1-Hasan ‘All, Annales regum Mauri-
taniae, ed. and trans. by Tornberg (Upsaliae, 1843), p. 15 ; Ibn
Qaldun, op. cit. i. 177, 207, 209 ; Leo Africanus, op. cit. i. 163.
5 Radd al-Qartas, trans. by Beaumier (Paris, i860), p. 16.
14 R I T U A L A N D B E L I E F IN M O R O C C O

of Christian slaves, who are supposed to have left some

impress on the native population.1 But the conjectured
survivals of a Christian influence are anyhow exceedingly
scanty. T he supposition that the cross in modern Berber
tattooing and ornamentation is a relic of this kind is the
more unwarranted since the cross is also seen as an ornament
in the ancient E gyptian representations of Libyans ; 2 but
the case is different with the Sunday rest observed by the
women o f some Berber tribes in the neighbourhood of
F ez.3 A ccording to Leo A frican us it was the custom in
Fez to eat certain dainties on Christm as eve ; 4 but I was
told that no such custom exists there at present.
Ancient Rom an influence is conspicuous in certain rites ; 5
and in one or two cases I think I have identified traces of
the religion of Carthage, due to the Punic colonisation.6
Resem blances have been found between the religion of the
ancient E gyptians and that of the Libyans, including the
Berbers of the W est, but there have been different opinions
as to their explanation.7 Such likenesses are not necessarily
due to E gyptian influence. M r. Bates suggests that, just
as a definite Libyan element is knit into the E gyptian
language, so there are, in all probability, L ibyan elements
in the E gyptian religion.8
Finally it should be noticed that a very large number of
rites and beliefs in M orocco are identical with, or very
similar to, rites and beliefs found on the other side of the
M editerranean. M any such cases will be mentioned in the
present work, but its scope does not allow an adequate dis­
cussion of this vast and difficult subject. The similarities
m ay be partly due to “ the like w orking of m en’s minds
under like conditions ” (as Tylor put it 9), but largely also
1 Budgett Meakin, The Moorish Empire, p. 309 sq.
2 Infra, i. 451 so. 3 Infra, i. 134, 226.
4 Leo Africanus, op. cit. p. 452 sq. Cf. Moulieras, Le Maroc inconnu,
ii. (Paris, 1899), P* 5 19 5 D outte, Merrdkech (Paris, 1905), p. 373 sq.
5 Infra, ii. 153 sqq. 6 Infra, i. 395 sq.
7 Infra, i. 100 sq. Cf. ii. 86, 253.
8 Bates, The Eastern Libyans (London, 1914), p. 207.
9 Tylor, Researches into the Early History o f M ankind (London,
1878), p. 5.
 IN T R O D U C T IO N

to the contact of peoples or to a common descent. The

Berbers are generally considered to belong to a northern
branch of the H am itic stock, though the opinion has been
expressed 1 that they are not Hamites by race but conquerors
of the H am itic aborigines of North A frica who adopted the
language of the conquered. In any case it seems difficult
to doubt that a very large portion or the bulk of the Berbers
are members of a race which was once spread over the
M editerranean basin, and which has been called the M editer­
ranean race, whatever the origin of this race m ay be. It is

F i g . 8 .— Am ong the A it Yusi.

characterised by black hair and brown eyes ; but am ong the

Berbers there is also an appreciable element of blondness.
In M orocco blond people are in fact very frequent am ong the
Rifians 2 and by no means rare among the B rib e r 3 and the
Shloh of the Great A tlas ; and there are such people in the

1 Lissauer, ‘ Archaologische und anthropologische Studien iiber die

Kabylen in Zeitschrift fu r Ethnologie, xl. (Berlin, 1908), p. 527.
2 See also Mrs. Brooks, A Memoir o f Sir John Drummond Hay
(London, 1896), p. 153; de Segonzac, Voyages au Maroc ( i 8 g g -ig o i)
(Paris, 1903), p. 47 ; de la Martiniere, Morocco: Journeys in the K ing ­
dom o f Fez and to the Court o f M ulai Hassan (London, 1889), p. 69.
3 See also de Segonzac, op. cit. pp. 137, 166, 229. According to
Harris (Tafilet [Edinburgh & London, 1895], P- x59)> there are some
blue-eyed persons among the Drawa.
i6 R I T U A L A N D B E L I E F IN M O R O C C O

mountains o f A lg e ria as w ell.1 This blondness am ong the

Berbers has been explained in different w ays.2 It has been
attributed to im m igration from Europe. T h e invasion of
the V andals would o f course be quite insufficient to account
for it, since blond people are known to have existed in N orth
A frica long before their a rr iv a l; 3 but it is supposed that at a
much earlier time an im m igration took place from the north
o f Europe, the land of the blonds, across the Straits of
G ibraltar.4 This hypothesis is based partly on the fact that
a large agglom eration of blonds is only found in that region
o f the world, and partly on the occurrence of dolmens in a
continuous line from the shore of the B altic to Tunis which
are considered to m ark the path of the m igration. A ccord in g
to another theory, the blondness is, largely at least, indigenous
to A frica, being due to the influence of external conditions,
more particularly to that of altitude,5 or to spontaneous
variation o f unknown origin.6 The problem cannot be
regarded as definitely solved ; but I believe that most students
of racial biology would nowadays favour the idea of the
infusion of foreign blood as the cause of the blondness.

Before concluding m y introductory remarks I desire to

1 Randall-Maciver and Wilkin, Libyan Notes (London, 1901), pp. 29,
30, 97 sq. ; Lissauer, loc. cit. pp. 518, 525 ; Steensby, ‘ Nogle etnografiske
Iakttagelser fra en Rejse i Algier og Tunis 1908 ’, in Geografisk Tids-
skrift, xx. (Kj0benhavn, 1909-10), p. 68 ; Hilton-Simpson, ‘ The
Influence of its Geography on the People of the Aures massif, Algeria
in The Geographical Journal, lix. (London, 1922), p. 23.
2 See also Topinard, ‘ Instructions sur l’anthropologie de l’Algerie.
Deuxieme partie : Instructions particulieres in Bulletins de la Societe
d ’Anthropologie de Paris, ser. ii. vol. viii. (1873), p. 645 sq. ; Ripley,
The Races o f Europe (London, 1900), p. 279.
3 Bates, op. cit. p. 39 sq q .; Mommsen, Romische Geschichte, v.
(Berlin, 1917), p. 622 n. 1.
4 Faidherbe, ‘ Instructions sur l’anthropologie de l’Algerie. Premiere
partie : Considerations generates ’, in Bulletins de la Societe d'A nthro­
pologie de Paris, ser. ii. vol. viii. (1873), p. 605 s q .; Lissauer, loc. cit.
p. 526 sq. ; Mehlis, 4Die Berberfrage ’, in A rchiv fu r Anthropologie,
new ser. vol. viii. (Braunschweig, 1909), p. 285 ; Schrader, ‘ Le Maghreb
in Revue anthropologique, xxiii. (Paris, 1913), p. 83.
5 Sergi, The Mediterranean Race (London, 1901), p. 74 s q .; Ripley,
op. cit. p. 280.
6 Steensby, loc. cit. p. 68.
 IN TR O D U CTIO N 17

say a few words on the m eaning I attach to the terms religion

and m agic, as there has been much controversy as to the
proper use of these terms. In my definitions of them I shall
try so far as possible to follow the common usage ; but as the
popular use of terms is often vague, it m ay be necessary for
scientific purposes to give them a more definite meaning.
In expounding my own views on the subject I find it
most convenient to begin with an examination of the views
of others. A s sta rtin g -p o in t I shall choose Sir James

F ig . 9 .— I n Dukkala.

Frazer’s chapter on ‘ M agic and Religion ’ in The M agic

Arty 1 although his ideas are so well known that I almost owe
an apology for repeating them. B y religion Frazer under­
stands “ a propitiation or conciliation of powers superior to
man which are believed to direct and control the course of
nature and of human life Thus defined it “ consists of
two elements, a theoretical and a practical, namely, a belief
in powers higher than man, and an attempt to propitiate or
please them ” . It is not necessary, however, that religious

1 Frazer, The Magic A r t and the Evolution o f Kings, i. (London,

1911), p. 220 sqq.
VOL. I C
i8 R I T U A L A N D B E L I E F IN M O R O C C O

practice should always take the form of a ritual ; its aim is

to please the deity, and if the deity is one who delights in
charity and m ercy and purity more than in oblations of
blood, the chanting of hymns, and the fumes of incense, his
worshippers will best please him by being pure and m erciful
and charitable towards men. M agic, on the other hand,
deals with “ impersonal forces ” , and aims at control or
constraint, not conciliation. It is true that it often seeks to
affect spirits, who are personal agents o f the kind assumed

F ig . io . — Boy in the Garbiya. Photograph by D r. A la n Gardiner.

by religion, as well as men or inanim ate objects ; but w hen­

ever it does so in its proper form, it constrains or coerces
instead of conciliating or propitiating them, as religion would
do. For it assumes that all personal beings, whether human
or divine, are in the last resort “ subject to those impersonal
forces which control all things ” , to “ the operation of
imm utable laws acting m echanically ” .
I think that Frazer has well brought out the difference
between religion and m agic. T he religious practice is
essentially worship of spiritual beings, the m agical practice
 IN T R O D U C T I O N 19

is essentially coercion. The religious attitude is in its nature

respectful and humble, the m agical attitude is domineering
and self-assertive. A t the root of the difference between
religion and m agic there is thus a difference in the mental
state of the persons who practise them. So far as religion
is concerned, this agrees well with the notion so forcibly
expressed by Schleiermacher, that the religious feeling is in
its essence a feeling of dependence ; whereas the word
m agician invariably suggests the idea of a person who claims
to possess power and to know how to wield it in the m agic
art. In order to achieve his aim he may make use of spirits,

F ig . i i .— C o u n tr y s c h o o lb o y s .

but then he coerces them to submit to his will ; if he tried

to gain their assistance by propitiating them, his attitude
would be religious, not m agical. The m agical force acts
mechanically, and it m ay be inherent not only in personal
beings but in animals and plants and all sorts of inanimate
things. This view of m agic finds support in mediaeval con­
ceptions of it. It is true that the theologians mostly attri­
buted the success o f m agic to demons, who were enticed by
men to w ork marvels ; but the demons were able to do so
largely through their superior knowledge of the forces of
nature.1 A n d besides the marvels worked by spirits, there
1 Thorndike, A History o f Magic and Experimental Science, ii.
(London, 1923), pp. 343, 973.
20 R I T U A L A N D B E L I E F IN M O R O C C O

were others which were produced w ithout their aid, sim ply
by the wonderful occult virtues inherent in certain objects of
nature. T o marvels w rought in this manner W illiam of
A uvergne applied the term “ natural m agic ” .1 A lbertus
M agnus likewise associated m agic with natural forces and
the stars, as well as with demons ; 2 and Thom as A quinas,
though strongly upholding the opinion that m agic is due to
demons, gives us a glim pse of a different conception of it,
according to which m agicians were able by personal quali­
fications, by subtle use of occult natural properties, by rites
and ceremonies, and by the art of astrology, either to w ork
wonders directly and im m ediately or to coerce demons to
w ork wonders for them .3
W hile I thus substantially agree with Frazer in his
distinction between religion and m agic, I think he has, in
his theoretical discussion of the relation between them, over­
looked what they have in common. H e calls m agic “ the
bastard sister of science ” . Both m agic and science, he
says, assume that “ the succession of events is perfectly
regular and certain, being determined by im m utable laws,
the operation of which can be foreseen and calculated
precisely ” ; but unlike science, m agic misunderstands the
nature of the particular laws which govern that sequence. It
is nothing but a mistaken application of the very simplest and
most elementary processes of the mind, namely, the association
of ideas by virtue o f resemblance or contiguity. T h at such
associations play an exceedingly important part in m agic has
been abundantly proved, but all m agic can certainly not be
said to be a mistaken application of them or be reduced to
w hat Frazer calls “ sym pathetic m agic His two branches
o f it, homoeopathic m agic and contagious m agic, cannot even
be regarded as co-ordinate subdivisions of m agic : while the
former consists in an act which is supposed to produce an
effect resem bling its cause, the notion on w hich contagious
m agic proceeds— namely, that things w hich have once been
conjoined must remain so ever afterw ards— requires an act
of some kind or other to be m agic at all, if by m agic is under-

1 Thorndike, op. cit. ii. 343. 2 Ibid. ii. 553. 3 Ibid. ii. 604 sq.
 IN TR O D U CTIO N 21

stood action and not a mere idea. On the other hand, there
is one characteristic common to all m agical practices and
the m agical forces applied in them, which curiously enough
has found no place in F razer’s general theory, although he,
o f course, is cognisant of it.1 N othing is more prominent
in popular notions concerning m agic, as well as in the
descriptions of it given by mediaeval writers, than its m arvel­
lousness, mysteriousness, occultness, uncanniness.2 It is this
that makes m agic akin to religion.

F i g . 12.— V illage in the Fahs (Northern Morocco).

M en distinguish between phenomena which they are

fam iliar with and consequently ascribe to “ natural ” causes,
1 He says in one place (op. cit. i. 111 n. 2) that he regards a supposed
mysterious force “ as supplying, so to say, the physical basis both of
magic and of taboo, while the logical basis of both is furnished by a
misapplication of the laws of the association of ideas
2 Dr. Malinowski, who possesses a profound first-hand knowledge
of savage magic, observes, in his book Argonauts o f the Western Pacific
(London, 1922, p. 420 sq.), that “ the effects of magic, although con­
stantly witnessed, and although considered as a fundamental fact, are
regarded as something distinctly different from the effects of other human
activities. . . . The effects of magic are something superadded to all
the other effects produced by human effort and by natural qualities. . . .
Magic represents, so to speak, a different sort of reality— ‘ supernatural ’
or ‘ super-normal ’
22 R I T U A L A N D B E L I E F IN M O R O C C O

and other phenomena w hich seem to them unfam iliar#and

mysterious and are therefore looked upon as “ supernatural ”
or are supposed to spring from “ supernatural ” causes.
W e meet ’ w ith this distinction am ong savages as well as
civilised races. It m ay be that in the mind of a savage the
natural and the supernatural often overlap, that no definite
line can be drawn between the phenomena which he refers
to one class and those which he refers to the other ; 1 but
he certainly sees a difference between events of everyday
occurrence or ordinary objects of nature and other events or
objects which fill him with a feeling of wonder or mysterious
awe. This is testified by language. W ords like the A lgon k in
manitou, the D acotah wakan or wakanda, the M elanesian
mana, the Fijian kalou, the M aori atua, the M alagasy
ndriam anitra, are used to denote a mysterious force or some­
thing wonderful or divine. A n d the testimony of lan guage
is corroborated by facts relating to the nature of those objects
which are most commonly worshipped. A great cataract,
a difficult and dangerous ford in a river, a spring bubbling
up from the ground, a volcano, a high mountain, an isolated
rock, a curious or unusually large tree, intoxicants and
stimulants, animals of an unusual size or appearance, persons
suffering from some abnorm ality, such as deformity,
albinoism, or madness— all are looked upon by savages with
superstitious regard or are propitiated with offerings.2
T h at the objects of religious worship, as well as the forces
applied in m agic, are fundam entally more or less mysterious,
awe-inspiring, supernatural, seems to me to be a well-
established fact, in spite of Professor D urkheim ’s assertion
that the idea of the mysterious has a place in a small number
o f advanced religions only, and cannot therefore be regarded
as a characteristic of the religious phenom ena without
excluding from the definition most of the facts which should
be defined.3 I think that the feeling of m ystery and the

1 Cf. infra, i. 146 sq.

2 See my book The Origin and Development o f the Moral Ideas, ii.
(London, 1908), p. 586 sqq.
3 Durkheim, Les formes elementaires de la vie religieuse (Paris,
1912), p. 39 sq.
 IN TRO D U CTIO N 23

germ o f a distinction between the natural and the super­

natural are found even in the lower animal world. T he horse
fears the whip, but it does not make him shy ; on the other
hand, he m ay shy when he sees an umbrella opened before
him or a paper m oving on the ground. The whip is well
known to the horse, whereas the m oving paper or the

F ig . 1 3 .— M o u n ta in v illa g e in th e n e ig h b o u r h o o d o f T e t u a n .

umbrella is strange, uncanny, let us say “ supernatural ” .

D ogs and cats are alarmed by an unusual noise or appearance,
and remain uneasy till they have by exam ination satisfied
themselves of the nature of its cause. Even a lion is scared
by an unexpected noise or the sight of an unfam iliar object ;
and we are told of a tiger which stood trem bling and roaring
in a paroxysm of fear when a mouse tied by a string to a
stick had been inserted into its cage.1
1 Westermarck, op. cit. ii. 582 sq.
24 R I T U A L A N D B E L I E F IN M O R O C C O

In full agreem ent with his general theory o f m agic, Frazer

speaks of the “ radical conflict of principle between m agic
and religion ” . H e admits that there are instances o f a
“ fusion or confusion of m agic with religion ” , but this is, in his
opinion, due rather to accident than to any organic affinity
between them. A fter m ankind had passed through an
initial stage in which m agic existed without religion, there
came another, intermediate, stage in which religion, having
arisen, co-operated and was to some extent confused with
m agic, since the functions of priest and sorcerer were often
combined. T o serve his purpose man wooed the goodwill
o f gods or spirits by prayer and sacrifice, while at the same
time he had recourse to ceremonies and forms of words which
he hoped would o f themselves bring about the desired result
without the help o f god or devil ; he uttered prayers and
incantations almost in the same breath, know ing or recking
little of the theoretical inconsistency of his behaviour, so
long as, by hook or crook, he contrived to get w hat he wanted.
A s a matter of fact, however, the relationship between
m agic and religion is much more intimate. O w ing to the
element of m ystery which is found in both, m agical forces
m ay be personified as spirits or gods or be transform ed into
divine attributes or lead to divine injunctions ; and m agical
practices m ay become genuine acts of religious worship, or
acts o f worship m ay become m agical practices, or the same
act m ay sim ultaneously be m agical and religious, coercive
and propitiatory. Numerous instances of such trans­
formations have been given in my book on the Origin and
Development o f the M oral Ideas. For exam ple : the m agical
forces which give efficacy to curses m ay be personified as
supernatural beings like the G reek Erinyes o f parents,1
b eggars,2 and guests,3 and the Rom an d iv i parentum ? d ii
hospitales,5 and Term inus ; 6 or they m ay be transform ed
into attributes of the chief god, as in the case o f Jupiter
Term inalis or Zeu? opios, not merely, I believe, because he
is frequently appealed to in connection with offences of a

1 Westermarck, op. cit. i. (1906), p. 623. 2 Ibid. i. 561. 3 Ibid. i. 585.

4 Ibid. i. 624. 5 Ibid. i. 585. 6 Ibid. ii. 68.
 IN T R O D U C T I O N 25

certain kind, but also because such a god has a tendency

to attract supernatural forces which are in harmony with his
general nature.1 The injurious energy attributed to work
performed on the seventh day developed into a religious

F ig . 14.— The cottage at Dar 1-Hjar in Andjra in which I was staying.

prohibition,2 and the uncanny feeling experienced in mention­

ing the name of a supernatural being readily leads to the
belief that he feels offended if his name is pronounced.3
Curses and blessings become prayers ; 4 and, on the other hand,
prayers become spells, as appears from the words of many
1 Westermarck, op. cit. ii. 68. 2 Ibid. ii. 286 sq. 3 Ibid. ii. 640 sqq.
4 Ibid. i. 564 sq., ii. 66-68, 120-123, 658, 686-690, 731 ; infra, i. 479.
26 R I T U A L A N D B E L I E F IN M O R O C C O

formulas which are used as incantations.1 T he prayer is

imbued with supernatural energy ow ing to the holiness of
the being to whom it is addressed, and its constraining force
m ay then be directed even against the god himself. So
also a sacrifice m ay become endowed with m agical force
in consequence of its contact or communion with the super­
natural being to whom it is offered, and m ay be used as a
means of com pelling him to yield to the wishes of the sacrificer.
W e meet with this idea in Zoroastrianism, in m any of the
V edic hymns, and especially in Brahm anism .2 In M orocco
it is not always easy to decide whether an animal sacrifice is
meant as ‘dr (im plying a conditional curse) or as a gift, that
is, whether it is a m agical means of compulsion or a religious
act of worship ; it m ay be both at the same time. So also
it m ay be difficult or impossible in certain cases to distinguish
between misfortunes attributed to jn u n — spirits who seem to
have been invented to explain strange and mysterious pheno­
mena suggesting a volitional cause— and those attributed
to l-bas as an impersonal force of e v il; and the reason for
this is that the feeling of uncanniness is at the bottom of
the belief in both kinds of supernatural influences.
There is even some reason to believe that the affinity
between m agic and religion has found expression in the word
religion itself. It has been conjectured that the Latin
religio is related to religare, which means “ to tie ” .3 The
relationship between these words has been supposed to
im ply that in religion man was tied by his god. But the
connection between them seems to allow of another and more
natural interpretation, namely, that it was not the man who
was tied by the god, but the god who was tied by the man.
This interpretation was suggested to me by certain ideas and
practices prevalent in M orocco. The Moors are in the habit
of tying rags to objects belonging to a saintly place, or of
knotting the leaves of a palmetto grow ing there, as ‘dr upon
the saint ; and the lar implies the transference of a conditional
curse. T he rite is accom panied with a petition, and in
perform ing it the petitioner m ay declare that he is tyin g the
1 Westermarck, op. cit. ii. 656 sqq. 2 Ibid. ii. 618 sqq.
3 According to another opinion it is derived from relegere.
 IN TR O D U CTIO N 27

saint and is not going to release him, or to open the knot,

until the saint has helped him.1 This is what we should call
m agic, but the Romans m ight in ancient times have called it
religio. T h ey were much more addicted to m agic than to
true religion ; they wanted to compel the gods rather than
to be compelled by them. Their religio was perhaps akin
to the G reek fcaraSeo-fjLos, which meant not only an ordinary
tie, but also a m agic tie or knot or a bewitching thereby.2
Plato speaks of persons who by incantations and m agic ties
persuaded the gods, as they said, to execute their w ill.3
That religio^ however, from having originally a m agical
significance, came to be used in the sense which we attribute

F i g . 15.— A rab village seen at a distance.

to the term “ religion ” , is not difficult to explain. M en make

use of m agic not only in relation to their fellow-men, but in
relation to their gods. M agical and religious elements are
often inseparably interm ingled in the cult ; and, as already
said, the m agical means of constraining a god m ay be

1 Infra, i. 553 sqq. ^ ^

2 I am indebted to my friend Dr. R. R. Marett for drawing my
attention to this meaning of the word /<aTa8ecr/xos. So also the verb
KttraSew means not only “ to tie ” but “ to bind by magic knots ”
(Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae, xv. 9, p. 670; Dio Cassius, Historia
Romana, 1. 5), and KardSeo-is is used to denote “ a binding by magic
knots ” (Plato, Leges, xi. 933). See Liddell and Scott, A Greek-English
Lexicon (Oxford, 1897), p. 754 ; Miss Jane Ellen Harrison, Prolegomena
to the Study o f Greek Religion (Cambridge, 1903), p. 138 sqq.
3 Plato, Respublica, ii. 364.
28 R I T U A L A N D B E L I E F IN M O R O C C O

externally very similar to the chief forms of religious worship,

prayer, and sacrifice.1
T h at religion and m agic have som ething in common has
also been recognised by D urkheim , in spite o f his express
denial of an intrinsic connection between the feeling o f
mystery, or the belief in the supernatural, and the religious
phenomena. T he objects of both are said to belong to a
special world of phenomena called le sacre, and there must
after all be a very close affinity between the sacre and that
which other writers have styled “ the supernatural ” , con­
sidering that these terms are applied to the very same classes
o f phenomena. W ith regard to that which distinguishes
m agic from religion, the difference between D urkheim ’s and
m y own views seems to be more essen tia l: like Robertson
Sm ith,2 as also Messrs. H ubert and M auss in their outline
o f a general theory of m agic,3 he maintains that religion is
social in its aims and m agic antisocial, or at any rate non-

1 This suggestion as to the original meaning of the word religio was

made by me in a paper on 4The Influence of Magic on Social Relation­
ships \ read in 1905 and published in Sociological Papers, ii. (London,
1906), p. 143 sqq. (see p. 145 n.*) ; and was repeated in The Origin and
Development o f the Moral Ideas, ii. 584 sqq., and in my essay The
Moorish Conception o f Holiness (Baraka) (Helsingfors, 1916), p. 10 sq.
In a learned review of this essay (in Rivista trimestrale di studi filosofici
e religiosi, iv. [Perugia, 1923], p. 351 sqq.) Signor Giuseppe Furlani
approves of my suggestion, and quotes several facts to show that “ le
teorie dell’ Autore circa il legare magico sono pienamente confermate
dall’ uso linguistico presso i popoli semitici in proposito On the
other hand, he rejects my hypothesis, set forth in the same essay (p. 10
sq.), that the Arabic word murabit, or mrabat, as a term for a holy man,
has its root in a similar idea, which seemed to me at least as probable
as the earlier explanation that it originally meant a garrison soldier
stationed on the frontier to defend Islam. I argued that the word in
question is the active participle of the verb rabat, which is the third
formation of rabat (Moorish rbat), “ he tied ” , and that the original
meaning of it may consequently have been “ one who tried to tie ” .
Signor Furlani maintains that the other explanation has been incontest­
ably proved to be correct; but I am not quite persuaded of this (see
infra, i. 40).
2 Robertson Smith, Lectures on the Religion o f the Semites (London,
1894), p. 264.
3 Hubert and Mauss, ‘ Esquisse d’une theorie generate de la magie
in L'Annee sociologique, vii. (Paris, 1904), p. 1 sqq.
 IN TR O D U CTIO N 29

social.1 A very similar opinion has been expressed by Dr.

M arett. “ M agic ” , he says, “ I take to include all bad ways,
and religion all good ways, of dealing with the supernormal
— bad and good, of course, not as we happen to judge them,
but as the society concerned judges them. Sometimes,
indeed, the people themselves hardly know where to draw
the line between the two ; and, in that case, the anthropologist
cannot well do it for them. But every primitive society
thinks witchcraft bad. W itchcraft consists in leaguing
oneself with supernormal powers of evil in order to effect

F i g . 16.— A rab village.

selfish and antisocial ends. W itchcraft, then, is genuine

m agic— black m agic, of the devil’s colour. On the other
hand, every prim itive society also distinguishes certain
salutary ways o f dealing with supernormal powers. A ll
these ways taken together constitute religion ” .2
This use o f the terms, however, is not in agreem ent with
the most authoritative traditional usage. Besides black
m agic there is also white m agic. Even mediaeval theologians
distinguished between good and bad m agic. W illiam of
A uvergne (fi24 9 ), whose works present an unexpectedly
1 Durkheim, op. cit. p. 60 sqq.
2 Marett, Anthropology (London, s.d.), p. 209 sq.
30 R I T U A L A N D B E L I E F IN M O R O C C O

detailed picture of the m agic and superstition of his time,

sees no harm whatever in “ natural m agic ” , unless it is
employed for evil ends ; he observes that the workers of it
are called magi, because they do great things (magna agentes),
whereas others, who w ork m agic by the aid of demons, are to
be regarded as evil-doers.1 A lbertus M agnus defends the
M agi o f the gospel story and tries to exculpate them from
the practice o f those particular evil, superstitious, and
diabolical occult arts which Isidore and others had included
in their definitions of m agic. “ T h ey were not devoted to

F i g . 17.— M osque in an A ra b village.

any of these arts ” , he says, “ but only to m agic as it has been

described ; and this is praiseworthy ” . He was him self a
believer in occult forces and marvels in nature, showed a
leaning to the occult sciences, and was called, even by his
panegyrists, magnus in magia and in magicis expertus.2
In the Liber aggregations, a very popular treatise on m agic
which has been ascribed to A lbertus but is of dubious
authenticity, it is said that m agical science (scientia magicalis)
is not evil, since by know ledge of it evil can be avoided and
good attained.3

1 Thorndike, op. cit. ii. 347.

2 Ibid. ii. 550, 551, 553 sq. 3 Ibid. ii. 726.